The Emerging Effect of Outside Directors on the Financial Performance of Italian University Spin-Offs
Manuel De Nicola, Christian Corsi, Antonio Prencipe

Abstract
The study of corporate governance is fundamental in university spin-offs (USOs) because their activities are characterized by fast growthbut, jointly, a great risk of market failure cause their knowledge and technology-driven nature, which rise high information asymmetry between management and owners.Furthermore, it is noteworthy that corporate governance affects the performance of the firm.In this view, the paper investigates the effect of outside directorson the financial performance of USOs. Based on a sample of 418 Italian USOs over the period 2010-2014, the results show thatoutside directors arenegatively associated with the financial performance of USOs. The evidence seems to reject the hypothesis that outside directors have a key and superior monitoring and advising role compared to internal directors.

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