Technology-Based Spin-offs in Romania: Evaluation of Their Performance in Different Development Stages

Studies have focused their attention on the creation and performance of technology-based spin-offs in more developed countries and less on emergent European economies. The present paper aims to analyse the impact of manager's age and manager's previous technological experience on the economic performance of tech spin-off companies formed in Romania using European funds during a 15 years period in the three stages of development: stage 1 (1–2 years), stage 2 (3–6 years), stage 3 (>6 years). The study used company turnover, profit and economic rentability using a specialized statistical program (STATISTICA 8), developing a database of technology-based spin-offs founded from 2006-2013. As a novel contribution, results show that years of previous technological experience of the managers have a positive influence on the company's economic performance but only in the second stage of development (3–6 years).