The performance of different types of technology startups: Link to national innovation system

Abstract

This letter aims to highlight an emerging research need: how national innovation system (NIS) characteristics interact with different types of startups, specifically university startups (USUs) and corporate spin-offs (CSOs), to shape performance outcomes. Understanding these dynamics is essential for shaping national policy and investment strategies to enhance economic growth through technology commercialization. The study narratively reviews empirical research on the comparative performance of startup types and identifies gaps in evaluating it within the NIS context. It also presents my recent research on biopharmaceutical startups in Japan, analyzing how the NIS impacts startup effectiveness and proposing directions for future research. The results of previous empirical studies vary across countries and industries, and the relative performance of USUs and CSOs remains debated. It also reveals limited discussion in existing literature on how the NIS influences the performance of USUs and CSOs. The findings from biopharmaceutical sector in Japan, which has a unique innovation system in which large corporations’ internal innovations have led national R\&D, suggest that the effectiveness of startup types is closely tied to the specific characteristics of the NIS. This letter provides a foundation for future studies to explore the interplay between startup types and NIS, thereby contributing to the development of targeted policies and investment strategies.