Suchergebnisse

The founding and early development of a firm are crucial events. Despite this fact, most research is aimed at problems existing in firms that are established and have passed the early development. Consequently, knowledge of the early development process in a business firm is limited, particularly where technology-based firms are concerned. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the early development processes of technology-based firms. The research questions are: What aspects are important in the early development of a technology-based firm? Are some of these aspects more difficult to develop than others and, if so, why? A case study approach is used. Three technology-based firms have over a period of five years been studied in detail, using interviews and sources such as minutes of board meetings, business and market plans and other documents. From a review of the literature, eight essential aspects (business idea, product, market, organization, expertise, prime mover, customer relations and other corporate relations) of the early development have been chosen. The results show that the degree of difficulty to develop the aspects vary. A particularly difficult aspect is to define the market.

Several sources have emphasized the importance of the entrepreneurial economy, and the role venture capitalists (VCs) plays as financiers. VCs are often actively and personally involved in their portfolio companies, but the cost of governance is high and they therefore have to select when to be active participants. Four different risks are identified in this paper: agency risk, business and market risk, coalition risk, and conformity risk. Weak support is found for the categories of agency and business and market risk. The data speak in favor of VCs getting more involved when the portfolio companies experience some kind of trouble. Their activity level increases when the portfolio companies have an inexperienced CEO, when the companies are in an early stage of their development, are young, have a weak board of directors, and/or a weak performance.

Like many other countries, Sweden is putting a lot of effort into the development of effective support for small firms. This has resulted in the emergence of a number of programmes intended to increase the number and quality of start-ups and to improve their chances of survival and further growth. In the development of support programmes, it is important to be aware of potential barriers on the demand side (the perceived benefit of taking part in programmes) as well as on the supply side (the support organisation's ability to develop satisfactory programmes). This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey of 158 technology-based firms in and around Linköping, Sweden. The focus of this research was to study the dynamics of the firm's participation in the support programmes. The firm's attitude towards support programmes, how the gap between demand and supply occurs, as well as, how this gap could be bridged to achieve effective support activities was studied. The results showed that the supply-demand gap became apparent when the firm's situation was compared to its participation in various programmes. The implications of the study are that the support organisations should be focused on the firms' real needs, that they should facilitate communication between their organisation and the small firm sector and should secure a supply of good programme managers.

This pioneering work explores both the theory and practice of business and technology incubation over the past six decades as an approach to new venture creation and development. With a global scope, the Handbook examines key concepts, models, and mechanisms, providing a research-based analytical foundation from which to understand the emerging role of modern incubation tools in building entrepreneurship ecosystems for promoting targeted economic development.

One aspect of Science Parks development that has come into focus is the attraction of talent, which could include attracting specific expertise, making it easier for firms to be established and reach skilled workers. In order to encompass different contexts, both economic and cultural, a questionnaire was sent to 120 Science Parks, of which 59 (49%) replied. The study included 22 variables, including eleven independent variables according to Science Park stakeholders and characteristics when selecting talent for tenant firms, five control variables, and six variables of Science Park success dimensions. The results show that the characteristics of talent contribute to the park's success. Universities are the primary source of talent, and the government has a critical role in promoting collaboration between firms and universities. Therefore, park managers should promote links with local universities and the student community as well as strengthen their relationship with government representatives at all levels to receive the necessary support for park development. ; Funding agencies: Chalmers University of Technology

What the future holds for the industrial cities of the past is a life and death question for many municipalities. Researchers, policy makers and ordinary citizens deal with issues related to developing appropriate strategy for renewing a declining industrial city. Searching the industrial landscape for an existing firm to relocate or establish a branch plant, with an offer of subsidies, is typically the first idea for life support. Developing a new economic base from advanced research is often the next thought for resuscitation. In this paper we study how a small city region, formerly dependent upon old labour-intensive industries, has developed a knowledge-based renewal strategy inspired by ideas emanating from a superseded local economy. Prior research has shown that there are four stages of development in a knowledge-intensive region; inception, implementation, consolidation, and renewal, and at the first stage government and academia take initiative (Etzkowitz & Klofsten, 2005). Later on, the initiative is transferred to industrial actors that identify and exploit the opportunities of the new knowledge. In this process knowledge input is a central aspect of regional development, and stakeholders are active in constructing assets for knowledge production (Cooke & Leydesdorff, 2006; Cooke et al, 2007). We further develop the inception phase of the model through of a triple helix "spaces" strategy for regional renewal, with particular focus in this paper on the consensus space. A longitudinal case study is used to explicate the dynamics of change among university-industry-government actors, including consensus building within the city and with its neighbour city. Our study show that the keys to success were (1) cross-institutional entrepreneurship, aggregating regional and national resources to realize a bespoke locally generated strategy as opposed to the adoption of the usual list of high-tech hot-topics e.g. IT, biotech, alternative energy and (2) striking a balance between intra-regional competition and collaboration in order to achieve common objectives and avoid stasis arising from hyper-competitiveness. Comparisons are made to other relevant cases to infer a theoretical model of regional renewal through hybridization of old and new industrial and knowledge elements.

This paper explores activities undertaken by Science Parks to attract talent for their tenants. Despite the importance of accessing talent, there are very few studies focusing on this research area. The data in this investigation comes from seven cases studies on talent attraction activities carried out by three Science Parks in Sweden. We show that the parks conduct many different activities to attract talent including headhunting key personnel for start-ups, organising establishment platforms for foreign companies, and facilitating the exchange of knowledge and talent with higher education institutions. Science Parks house companies of different sizes, ages, and business orientations and therefore, park managers should be sensitive to the real needs of tenant firms when performing talent attraction activities.

This paper focuses on how a 'best practice' policy initiative from one region can be transferred to other recipient systems. It examines how an entrepreneurship programme from Linköping has been successfully adopted by eight other regions throughout Sweden and finds that transferring 'best practice' is dependent on a number of preconditions in respect to the "sender's" and the "recipient's" system, as well as the interaction between these two systems. For instance, both sides need to ensure an openness to continue the learning process and adapting the knowledge to be transferred to local conditions. It also takes a long-term commitment by both parties which derives not only from the role of institutions, but also from enthusiastic individuals who drive the transfer process and who sustainably link the systems after the initial transferring of the best practice policy initiative.

The purpose of this paper and the special issue is to improve our understanding of the theoretical, empirical, managerial and political implications of emerging models of entrepreneurial universities in the new social and economic landscape. We accomplish this objective by examining the role of entrepreneurial universities as drivers of innovation and entrepreneurship activities. Our analysis starts with an overview by outlining an overarching framework. This allows us to highlight the contributions made in this special issue within the framework. We conclude by outlining an agenda for future research and discuss implications for university managers, policy makers and other academic agents involved in the development of entrepreneurial/innovation ecosystems.