Abstract:

Introduction:
During the last twenty years various entrepreneurship education initiatives increased aimed at training qualified professionals capable of promoting entrepreneurship projects, processes and products have been implemented by Higher Education Institutions (HEI). These initiatives are generally centred around incubators and accelerators, providing support for spin-offs and start-ups. University incubators and accelerators enable spin-offs and start-ups to access knowledge (e.g. research groups and databases) and specialised resources (e.g. technologies) within HEIs’ ecosystems. It is important to note that this development in the Higher Education sector occurred due to a necessity for creating opportunities for financial sustainability as well as more interaction with other key actors, namely business and government, to transform and improve society. The research question of this specific study is: What kind of support is available in Higher Education Institutions for the development of entrepreneurship in the form of star-ups and spin-offs?

Objective:
The paper presents the results of an international research project funded by the University of International Studies of Rome with the aim to explore the issue of "entrepreneurship education" in the Italian and Brazilian Higher Education contexts. The general research question is: What are the common and different aspects on the topic of "entrepreneurship education" initiatives, who delivers them and who is it aimed at?

Methodology:
Both the Italian and Brazilian research teams conducted reviews of the literature. In the Italian case, a systematic review was performed whilst in the Brazilian context a scoping review was performed due to a lack of literature in this context. Both reviews were carried out following PRISMA methodology and guidelines. The searches were performed in 8 databases: Virtual Health Library (VHL), PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Scielo, Ebsco and Embase. The filter "document type" (i.e. article or journal article or conference paper) was used in all databases.

Results:
Good business plan and business management, market knowledge and assessment, R&D for innovative solutions, and a robust network are the main factors related to spin-offs’ and start-ups’ success. The lack of financial resources, high bureaucracy, multiple roles, and lack of time are the main challenges faced by spin-offs and start-ups. The main funding sources were identified as: the government, angel or venture capital investors, and self-funding. It is noteworthy that some of the reported factors tend to be related to each other (e.g., lack of qualified personnel and lack of financial resources). Furthermore, all factors located in our studies are similar to factors reported by empirical studies and other international systematic reviews.
We also conclude that most of the success factors and challenges faced by spin-offs and start-ups are equal inside and outside university structures. Therefore, the main advantages of being part of the HEIs’ incubators/accelerators or technological parks seem to be the access to their, physical structure and tools (which reduces the costs of spin-offs and start-ups implementation), mentoring and training (what empowers beginning entrepreneurs), and network (which increase access to funding sources). Those advantages contribute to the success and higher survival rate of spin-offs and startups.

Keywords:

Higher education, entrepreneurship education, spin-off and start-ups, systematic analysis.