Fazackerley et al in their paper 'Innovation and Industry' notes that the UK could
claim to be a world leader in the area of university spin-outs, but only ranks number
11 in the 2009 INSEAD Global Innovation Index on university-business research
collaboration. They conclude that there must be more to university-business
interaction than spinning out companies [21]. As the desire to commercialise IPR
comes from its originator, a spin-out represents a university-led approach rather than
one based on customer need. This is 'technology push' rather than 'market pull'.
As such, it does not represent a flexible approach capable of meeting customer
requirements in a range of areas. A spin-out can achieve knowledge exploitation
and generate revenue for a university, and knowledge transfer occurs between the
university and the spin-out. However, it is not clear how a spin-out can achieve
knowledge transfer and innovation outside this. Also, while a spin-out may
generate a product of use to other companies, equally the product may form
competition to existing offerings and the spin-out may become a rival to existing
companies