Abstract

The commercialization of research has been high on the agenda since the beginning of transition in post-Soviet minor economies. The academic spin-offs are one of the channels by which university-derived technologies can be commercialized. This analytical chapter focuses on how progress in the transformation of an economic environment may support or burden the creation and nurturing of academic start-ups and, especially, of spin-offs. After providing an overview of the framework conditions, it investigates the presence and role of science and technology parks for knowledge-based start-ups /spin offs. Through spin-off formation we could observe few impacts of universities on the regional economy. The over-centralised system of the Soviet republics made metropolitan areas more scientific / innovative than the other regions. Nowadays each independent country makes efforts to develop their regional innovation systems outside the metropolitan areas. In each investigated countries we can find seeds of one or two potentially innovative regions.