Marina Van Geenhuizen (p), Mozhdeh Taheri, Danny Soetanto

Ilenia Bertacche

Research on founding teams and early networks has been widely taken up, specifically concerning university spin-off firms. University spin-off firms (USOs) established by university staff and/or graduates, have attracted abundant attention as an important channel of commercialization of university knowledge. The reason for this attention is among others the perceived contribution of university spin-offs to diffusion of new knowledge and to dynamic entrepreneurship in regional economies, providing high-tech employment. However, USOs’ early growth has remained modest in Europe since the late 1990s (e.g. Caputo et al., 2022; Hesse & Sternberg 2017), though more positive pictures have also been presented (e.g. Rodriguez-Gulias et al., 2018).
In search for understanding of small growth and differences in growth, founding teams’ composition has received much attention in literature, including age, education, pre-start work experience, academic background, etc. Such studies have, however, produced several ambiguous results, like positive impacts from information richness (diversity) and also problematic impacts from team fault-lines, given strong team diversity. Furthermore, in a previous quantitative study in Northwest Europe, it was observed that founding team composition tends to negatively influence USOs’ early performance, while networks - domestic social and international networks – tend to exert positive influence on this performance (Taheri, 2013).

Ilenia Bertacche (p)

Marta Meleddu

The mobility of highly skilled individuals plays a crucial role in shaping research productivity, institutional quality, and regional economic development. While previous studies have examined the impact of mobility on research performance, particularly among researchers, less attention has been given to the role of social capital in influencing these movements. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the determinants of researcher mobility across Italian provinces, with a particular focus on the influence of social capital.

Academic mobility has been studied from various perspectives, emphasizing economic, institutional, and social factors. Some researchers have explored the link between mobility and research productivity. Abramo et al. (2022) find that academic movement affects researchers’ output, though the impact varies by discipline and researcher demographics. Similarly, Wu et al. (2024) highlight the role of career advancement but suggest that promotions, rather than mobility itself, serve as the primary driver of productivity gains among researchers.

A distinct body of literature investigates the factors determining mobility. One key finding is that professional relocation is often driven by career opportunities. Barbieri et al. (2010), in their study of compulsory school teachers, found that mobility is frequently linked to career progression, with older teachers tending to return to their birthplaces, while younger ones move in search of better professional prospects. Expanding on this, D’Ingiullo et al. (2023) examine the role of social capital in shaping mobility trends, concluding that while lower-educated individuals are more constrained by social networks, highly educated professionals are primarily motivated by higher salaries and career advancement opportunities.

To our knowledge, no existing studies have investigated the determinants of researcher mobility at the university level. To address this gap, this study analyzes researchers’ movements across all universities in Italy over the period 2000–2024. The study aims to explore the role of individual factors (gender, age, and academic role), university factors (research quality, reputation, and size), and environmental factors (amenities, social capital, and local institutional quality). Furthermore, we compare behavioral differences in pull and push factors across research fields.

Additionally, this paper contributes to the literature on academic mobility by emphasizing the role of social capital in high-skilled migration and exploring how it may help mitigate regional disparities. It also considers emerging trends, such as post-financial crisis and post-pandemic relocation preferences, which have reshaped mobility dynamics in the academic sector.

Bianca Biagi, Alessandra Faggian, Marta Meleddu (p), Annamaria Nifo

Marina Van Geenhuizen

University research networks play a crucial role in academic and innovation ecosystems, with increasing collaboration reshaping research practices and influencing policy. While university-industry partnerships are well studied, university-university collaborations, particularly among smaller or peripheral institutions, remain underexplored despite their importance for local development.

This paper examines inter-university collaborative ties within Partenariati Estesi (EPs), an Italian initiative under the Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR), funded by the EU’s Next Generation EU program. EPs aim to strengthen collaboration among universities, research institutions, and firms, with a focus on underfunded areas. We investigate three key questions: (1) the role of geography and institutional characteristics in collaboration formation, (2) the impact of local institutional quality on participation likelihood, and (3) factors affecting universities’ centrality within EP networks.

Using data from ETER, Censis, Clarivate, and Nifo & Vecchione (2014), we analyze 87 Italian universities through social network analysis (SNA), logit estimation, and a two-stage Heckman selection model. Results indicate that while research quality influences participation and network centrality, structural factors—such as university size and geographic location—are more important. Hence, EPs collaborations are concentrated among large, centrally located universities in regions with stronger institutional quality, raising concerns about the program’s ability to evenly distribute research opportunities and meet its policy objectives.