Suchergebnisse

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the connection between university research and technological capital developed by science park (SCP) firms in order to elucidate whether the causal linkage is owing to non-pecuniary research spillovers or pecuniary technology transfer activities.Design/methodology/approach– Two publicly available surveys, one dealing with the research and transfer activities of 45 Spanish universities and another with the patenting activities of 44 Spanish SCPs, are matched in such a way that hypotheses can be tested using regression analysis.Findings– The patenting performance of SCP firms is positively related to the competitive R&D projects undertaken by the universities to which they are affiliated and negatively related to the technology transfer activities carried out by those universities. These findings suggest that the scientific knowledge produced by universities principally contributes to private technology-based firms' technological capital through non-pecuniary research spillovers, whereas the pecuniary technology transfer agreements remain uncertain or may even prove to be detrimental.Practical implications– Firms that are considering locating or remaining in a university-affiliated SCP should be aware that the university's pecuniary orientation when managing its intellectual capital may become a barrier as regards the firm filling its technological capital shortages. From a university administrator perspective, the complementary or substitute role of technology transfer officesvis-à-visSCPs should be considered in the light of the selling or revealing approach adopted by the university in order to commercialize and diffuse potential inventions.Originality/value– This study contributes to existing literature by shedding light on the causal linkage between university research and firm innovation, obtaining evidence in favor of an upstream, non-pecuniary and revealing role of universities in support of the accumulation of technological capital amongst SCPs tenant firms.

Purpose– The value of relational capital generated by entrepreneurs with their internal and external environment (Hormigaet al., 2011a, b), provides considerable resources when properly leveraged. It is particularly important in environments such as the high tech sector of incomplete information and weak economic markets such as new products, markets or technologies (Davidsson and Honig, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to examine how incubated technology entrepreneurs build relational capital for a new venture formation in the social context of a Higher Education Institution.Design/methodology/approach– The study took a qualitative approach based on content analysis of business plans and in-depth interviews with 25 technology entrepreneurs on an incubation programme – South East Enterprise Platform Programme – for technology graduates in the South East of Ireland.Findings– The study found that technology entrepreneurs during new venture formation engaged in four types of relational capital activities, namely, development of networks and contacts, relationship building, accessing and leveraging knowledge experts and members of associations.Practical implications– Incubator programmes need to actively support social building activities of technology entrepreneurs. Higher Education Institutes knowledge assets and networks are critical elements in supporting incubator technology entrepreneurs.Originality value– The study identified four types of relational capital building. The authors also found using Jones-Evans (1995) categorisation of technology entrepreneurs that users, producers, opportunists and non-technical entrepreneurs engaged in client focused relational capital building, whereas researcher types networked with service providers and displayed arms length relational capital building styles.

Purpose– Dealing with intellectual capital (IC), the purpose of this paper is to provide a strategic tool for management activities in knowledge-based organizations. In particular, in the contribution, an integrated framework for intangibles' representation, evaluation and control in Science Parks is developed.Design/methodology/approach– Starting from a review of the main instruments for measuring intangible resources in an organization, an integrated model of IC for Science Parks is formulated.Findings– The paper demonstrates that Science Parks are big repositories of knowledge but they are neither familiar with the IC management nor with the use of methodologies functional for the resources representations and for the variations dynamics of their value. Thereby it answers to questions related to the IC process representation, responding to managerial exigencies and to measurability and repeatability as strategic activities for business running.Originality/value– Unlike the great number of studies on IC that formulate objective metrics of the value of firms' intangible assets, the paper presents a model not to describe but to shape processes in a knowledge-based organization and to achieve and communicate results both for management and for increasing transparency of communication with external stakeholders.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategies business incubators (BI) adopt in respect to the creation of incubatee intellectual capital, and it focuses in particular on links between BI structural capital and the creation of incubatee relational capital (RC). By crossing IC literature with the open innovation paradigm the authors consider the incubator as an innovation intermediary and the authors investigate how different incubator strategies of knowledge exchange take place within and across incubator boundaries. The main issues the authors seek to explore regard the mechanisms by which incubators shape the exchange of knowledge within and across their boundaries and the rationale underlying such an approach.Design/methodology/approach– The analysis is based on a multiple case study research involving five Italian incubators. Primary and secondary data were gathered through interviews with each incubator managing director and with relevant actors.Findings– The analysis allows us to propose a theoretical framework and to highlight how different structural capital shape heterogeneous processes by which incubatees build their RC. The authors find that important differences in RC formation are present both at an exchange of knowledge level within the incubator, and across incubator boundaries.Research limitations/implications– The main limitations of this study regard the generalizability of results. This is mostly an exploratory work and further research based on quantitative rather than qualitative analysis, would provide stronger evidence in order to validate the results with respect to the population of incubators and consequently lead to more precise policy implications.Originality/value– The analysis points to the importance of recognizing different BI approaches regarding the mechanisms by which incubatees develop their RC, and allows us to gain a knowledge-based conceptualization of incubators. This definition moves beyond the more diffuse classification based on public vs private and sectoral specificities, and introduces some new insights for further research.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework to analyze the intellectual capital (IC) of new generation business incubators.


Design/methodology/approach
– The paper carries out a literature-based analysis of the different components of the IC of business incubators and develops a conceptual framework that links the business incubators' IC to the IC of incubated firms.


Findings
– The paper provides an analytical model able to support practitioners and scholars to better understand and evaluate the IC criticalities and requirements of incubators. The notion of incubation path is developed.


Originality/value
– The paper contributes to the extant literature about the intangible assets of business incubators by analyzing in detail how these structures use their IC to perform their activities.

Purpose
– As the complexity and scope of technical and social challenges increase, solutions to those challenges must be addressed by collaborative research and intellectual capital sharing efforts involving multiple organizations. One prominent type of research collaborative is the government-university-industry R&D partnership, an organizational form found in many countries. These collaboratives pose special management challenges, as they must combine the efforts of researchers coming from very different institutional and organizational cultures in order to capitalize their own intellectual capital. Many such partnerships have failed due to the inability to bridge these cultural gaps. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for establishing and managing these partnerships, using principles and constructs drawn from institutional theory, organizational learning, alliance theory, and innovation management.


Design/methodology/approach
– The examples of the NASA Laboratories, which are incubating several companies, are analyzed to show how this framework can highlight key attributes of successful research collaboratives.


Findings
– The recurring pattern from these diverse case studies shows that the presence of internal and external champions, appropriate technology, and patient risk capital make a difference in winning in a competitive environment. However, part of the same pattern perhaps is the lack of any identifiable recipes for success - critical factors appear to be situation specific.


Originality/value
– In light of the findings from the seven case studies the authors presented, they recommend using a hybrid portfolio approach in assessing the success of technology transfer and commercialization efforts.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of innovative performances for science parks as a framework for understanding how effectively human and structural capital (i.e. intellectual assets) are leveraged. The key point is fostering main determinants to investigate and/or make sense of key management activities/factors shaping the evolution and performance of knowledge creating processes.


Design/methodology/approach
– The study was based on the quantitative and qualitative values, for the period 2000-2011, gathered from a sample of 901 public and private organizations located in the 21 European Union (EU) countries. With regard to the methodology, the hypothesis testing first required an analysis of the correlations between the investigation variables, and then the use of regression analysis to study the relationships between the innovative performance of the research institutions, and the financial, organizational and knowledge characteristics of the science parks investigated.


Findings
– The empirical research shows that: the allocation of public resources does not influence most of the selected indicators of performance, with the exception of the negative effect seen for the number of patents; the resources provided by venture capitalists have a positive effect on all of the indicators of performance of the science park; the science parks of greater dimensions have better performances; the positive impact of the systemic relationships seems to have an effect that is limited to the increase in the number of contracts stipulated with industry; the number of publications produced by researchers of the science parks seems to have an unclear effect on the innovative performance; and an increase in the number of researchers enhances the innovative performance of the science parks.


Research limitations/implications
– It seems appropriate to suggest some research lines that arise from the limits of this work. In particular, it should be stressed that there is a need to enlarge the sample investigated to embrace local innovation systems outside the EU, so as to provide further validation to the empirical results of this research.


Practical implications
– This research has some practical implications of notable interest at the level of European policies. Interventions of public policies supporting innovation should not be concentrated on the increase of public funding but on increasing private capital investment.


Originality/value
– This paper aims to extend literature about factors explaining the financial, organizational and cognitive performance of science parks in Europe.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of being located in a science park (SP) on the level of a firm's intellectual capital (IC) performance.


Design/methodology/approach
– Using a sample of 183 Italian firms (i.e. 61 tenant and 122 non-tenant firms), and through the GLS technique, the authors regress the firms' IC performance across various explicative variables including a dummy that discriminates tenant and non-tenant firms.


Findings
– Consistently with expectations, the results show that the location of a firm in a SP leads to improved IC performance. Moreover, the authors find that some other firm characteristics, such as size, age, and leverage, are important predictors of its IC-based performance.


Research limitations/implications
– The sample is small and the impact on performance might be biased by factors related to the regional context (e.g. level of industrialization, quality of education, and science system).


Practical implications
– Implications for policy makers: support the growth of firms in SPs especially in those industries full of firms with scarce performance in IC. Implications for SP managers: they could "sell" (in terms of marketing) to both entrepreneurs to attract and policy makers this result. Implications for institutional investors: they should look at SPs with greater interest to find high-quality firms and improve their screening activity.


Originality/value
– This paper aims to extend literature about factors explaining the level of a firm's IC performance and the current understanding of the impact of SPs at firm level.