Board Formation in University Spin-Offs - A qualitative study on board formation and changes in a Swedish context

Summary: The ubiquity of business has subsequently led to the worldwide expansion of Corporate Governance (CG). As the future and its contingencies put pressures on companies, scholars try to explain certain phenomenon and scrutinize them. Corporate Governance has throughout time been heavily investigated, primarily focusing on the agency theories, and more recently, stewardship and other multi-dimensional theories for answers. However, on the flipside, other paths of CG have been somewhat neglected. One of these is the Board Formation and Board Composition. By devising a research model including theories pertinent to the latter we intend to investigate the phenomenon. Furthermore, the University Spin-Off (USO) setting in moreover irrefutably under-stimulated of scholarly attention in regard to aforementioned board matters. Thus, by combining the two in a Swedish setting and by conducting a qualitative case study approach, we hope to shed new light upon the conundrum. What we found was that the Board Formation/Composition to a large extent follows the theories and model that we proposed in our work, thus giving it academic and scholarly credibility and validity in our setting. Furthermore, individuals are added via the social and personal networks of existing personnel because they offer resources and/or competencies that the venture is lacking and needs in order to progress. However, no decisive evidence was found in regard to if the selection of individuals to the board varied over its Firm LifeCycle. Title: Board Formation in University Spin-Offs – A qualitative study on board formation and changes in a Swedish context Course: Bachelor Thesis – Business Administration, Management Authors: Gustaf Bernander & Victor Bordin Research question(s): How and why are specific individuals selected as board members in USO’s? Does the selection of board members vary depending on what stage in the life-cycle the firm is in? Purpose: Board Formation and Composition in a University Spin-Off setting is sill an academic phenomenon that has received relatively low scholarly glances. Furthermore, in the context of Sweden more light has yet to be shed upon the conundrum. As a result of the following we have decided to embark on a sojourn where we explore the former and the latter in a qualitative manner and juxtaposing it to relevant theory. Abbreviations: University Spin-Off (USO), Venture Capitalist (VC), Corporate Governance (CG), Resource Dependence Theory (RDT), Social Network Theory (SNT), Life-Cycle Theory of a University Spin-Off (LCT) Definitions: (1) Board Formation: how the board of the company in question is formed; who sits on the board, how has he come about and why is he there are common questions related to the formation. (2) USO: A University Spin-Off is a venture that has committed to transform technological inventions developed from university research that are likely to remain unexploited otherwise. Further, they have committed to the development as a part of their university education, and postgraduation continued to work with the venture. Target group: University Spin-Offs operating in a Swedish context Focus group: Start-up firms with similar backgrounds as the ones presented in this study; thus High-Tech Spin-Offs Theoretical perspectives: We have compiled existing academia with emphasis on corporate governance and more specifically on Boards in an USO setting. Most prominently, we have focused on applying the work of Bjornali & Gulbrandsen (2010), but also theories such as RDT, SNT and LCT Methodology: The study includes a qualitative approach in which we collected our empirical data through interviews