The aim of this paper is to explain and to test empirically how human resource management (HRM) practices contribute to knowledge sharing and innovation through employees' affective commitment. Results show that HRM practices do not influence knowledge sharing in a direct way, but they do have a positive effect when affective commitment mediates the relationship. We also find a positive relationship between knowledge sharing and innovation performance. That is, HRM practices contribute to knowledge creation and innovation through the generation of the affective commitment necessary for employees to be willing to share their knowledge. The relationships identified have been tested by applying structural equation models to a sample of 87 R&D departments of Spanish innovative companies.

Social innovations developed by academic spinoffs (ASOs) are acquiring an ever-increasing relevance in the literature on academic entrepreneurship. Previous studies have considered the importance of the social and institutional contexts of entrepreneurial ecosystems for the development of these innovations, although a greater depth of analysis is required in this field of study. This research analyzes the influence of the frequency of contact with agents of social and institutional contexts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem on the social innovations of ASOs. From a sample of 173 Spanish ASOs, the results indicate that frequent contact with government and academic support units improves this type of innovation of ASOs. Regarding social context, an increase in the frequency of contact with customers, suppliers, and competitors favors the development of social innovation. However, frequent contact with venture capital firms inhibits the development of this type of innovation.

This paper analyses the factors that influence opportunity recognition (OR) of academic spin‐offs (ASOs) from a contingency perspective. We focus on factors linked to the academic entrepreneur and propose that their relevance for explaining OR in ASOs depends on the context in which these firms operate: discovery (the necessary information for entrepreneurs to assess the new opportunities is available in the market) versus creation (complete information about opportunity exploitation and the likelihood of achieving certain outcomes is not available in the market). Results obtained in a sample of 167 Spanish ASOs show that, in a discovery context, academic entrepreneurs' OR is positively related to entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, previous managerial experience and access to academic and industry networks. In a creation context, only entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and access to industry networks become critical to OR, whereas previous managerial experience exerts a negative effect. Our results also show that the most relevant factor in a discovery context is previous managerial experience, while in a creation context, entrepreneurial self‐efficacy is the most significant.

The academic entrepreneurship literature has yet to consider the factors that affect social innovation in academic spin‐offs. Given this gap, this study adopted a knowledge‐based perspective and considers the antecedents of social innovation at two levels of analysis: academic spin‐offs and parent universities. Specifically, we analyzed the influence of academic spin‐offs' technological competence, entrepreneurial team functional heterogeneity, and funding type; and the moderating role of the parent university's social responsibility. A multilevel analysis was applied to a sample of 165 academic spin‐offs. The results revealed that technological competence, entrepreneurial team functional heterogeneity, and public funding sources positively influenced social innovation. However, venture capital funding negatively affected innovation. The results also showed that the parent university's social responsibility moderated the effect of functional heterogeneity but not the influence of technological competence. These findings contribute to the integration of the academic entrepreneurship literature within the field of social innovation.