How do academic spin-off companies generate and disseminate useful market information within their organizational boundaries?

From a market orientation perspective, this study intends to examine how small high-tech firms generate, disseminate and integrate information on customers’ needs, competitors’ activities and market forces within their organizational boundaries in order to define and to implement effective strategies. We perform an explorative qualitative analysis based on Italian and Spanish academic spin-off firms. We find that the activities of generation, dissemination and integration of market information are crucial to develop technological innovations and to obtain positive performance, even if these activities require the definition and development of a sophisticated marketing information system, as well as the availability of economic resources and specialized competences, often more limited in these small firms.