|
|
||||||
|
|
Project 1: Global-local Real-virtual Incubator Networks
Entrepreneurship is at the heart of sustainable, organic growth for most developed, as well as transitioning and developing economies and incubators have often served as catalysts and even accelerators of entrepreneurial clusters formation and growth. Our premise is that this may be more so in less developed economies where incubators can help bridge knowledge, digital, sociopolitical and even cultural divides and help increase the availability, awareness, accessibility and affordability of financial, human, intellectual, and even social capital, the key ingredients of entrepreneurial success. Incubation has recently experienced increased attention as a model of start-up facilitation. Venture capitalists see incubators as a means to diversify risky investment portfolios, while would-be entrepreneurs approach incubators for start-up support. Incubators are faced with the challenge and the opportunity of managing both investment risks, as well as entrepreneurial risks. As an indication of their usefulness, more than a thousand incubators have been established in the last few years based on a number of different incubation business models (not-for-profit, for-profit, public/private entity, etc.), which we categorize in five incubator archetypes: the university incubator, the independent commercial incubator, the regional business incubator, the company-internal incubator, and the virtual incubator. In this project, we propose an overarching incubator model that synthesizes elements and best practices emanating from the five archetypes empirically identified and also incorporates substantially higher economies of scale and scope, as well as global and local (gloCal) knowledge arbitrage potential. This paper presents an architectural blueprint for designing a gloCal, real and virtual network of incubators (G-RVIN) as a knowledge and innovation infra-structure and infra-technology which would link entrepreneurs and micro-entrepreneurs with local, regional, and global networks of customers, suppliers and complementors and thus help not only bridge, but also leverage, the diverse divides (digital, knowledge, cultural, socio-political, etc.). The implications of this archetype of new ventures incubation for facilitating both venture business activity and broad-based economic development are discussed and early findings from pilot projects in central and eastern Europe are discussed.
Researchers: Elias Carayannis, Max von Zedtwitz
Project 2: Key Success Factors of Incubation in Italy
Entrepreneurial high-tech start-ups account for a significant share in economic growth and innovation. This research addresses a key question with respect to supporting technology transfer and commercialization via such high-tech start-ups: what are the core services of start-up incubators, and how can the be managed best? We use a classification of five incubator archetypes — university, regional business, company-internal, independent commercial, and virtual incubators — to identify key services and describe their implementation. To eliminate external context factors, we concentrated on incubators in Italy and conducted case-research on 10 incubators (from an estimated total of 50). The central tenet of this project is that differences in competitive scope (industry, geography, and segment focus) and differences in strategic objectives (profit vs. non-for-profit) influence the nature, quality and implementation of incubation services and the way they are managed. Managerial and policy implications are discussed.
Researchers: Rosa Grimaldi, Max von Zedtwitz
Project 3: Corporate Incubators of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises
Since the late 1990s, many Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have established internal incubators to provide entrepreneurial outlets for core technologies, hoping some would help their overall profitability. Based on established incubator research frameworks, we used qualitative semi-structured interviews with senior SOE and incubator managers in China to identify specific dangers and challenges of SOE internal incubators. We also questioned motivation and objectives of incubator management and strategy, applying a mixed toolset of both traditional and Western management productivity measures and evaluation. The research builds on similar research done previously in China with non-SOE incubators, and internal incubators of Western companies. Our research points to several fundamental dilemmas within SOE incubators at least in our limited study sample, relating to the incubators’ role of technology commercialization platforms and internal organizational change agents.
Researchers: Max von Zedtwitz, Li Que
Project 4: Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Management in Start-Ups
Technology startups depend in large part on the promise and value of their technology in order to raise funding and enter a market. However, this core strategic asset is often at high risk in the early stages of venture development when there are limited funds and thin management resources. In this article we identify the common pitfalls in technology management among technology startups, and propose a best practices strategy for this class of intellectual property right holders. Based on a combination of interviews and surveys, we focus on a select group of startups to identify the nature of their current intellectual property rights management. Through this work we offer a possible technology management roadmap that takes technology startups from the first inception of an innovation to an execution stage of raising venture funding, and on to eventual commercialization as a successful company with a defensible position in the marketplace.
Researchers: Karl Ruping, Max von Zedtwitz
|
|||||