Building innovation networks : the process of partner selection by young knowledge-intensive firms

This paper addresses partner selection in innovation networks. It builds on the existing literature to develop an integrative framework that encompasses the main factors identified as influencing selection of innovation partners by young knowledge-intensive firms. It considers that both persistence and novelty are present in the network building process and that to fully understand the selection of innovation partners both aspects have to be considered. A framework is developed that integrates several arguments advanced in the literature to explain partner selection, namely social capital, imprinting and inertia for tie persistence, and network embeddedness and proximity for new tie selection. Using a rare event logit model, we estimate the likelihood of selecting a partner to access resources vital for innovation (both in aggregated terms and distinguishing between three resources - knowledge, complementary assets and credibility). The model is tested using data about the partnerships established by young Portuguese biotechnology firms, purposefully collected through questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews, complemented with documentary information. The results highlight the advantages of adopting an integrated framework that takes into account a variety of complementary explanations for both persistence and novelty, that tend to be addressed separately. They also uncover different network building strategies in terms of partner selection to access the different types of resources needed for innovation

Building innovation networks in sciencebased young firms : the selection of knowledge sources

The paper investigates the strategic choices made by young science-based firms’ regarding the selection of knowledge sources. Drawing on two streams of research – on alliances and on social networks – two different dimensions of this strategy are considered: the activation of the entrepreneurs’ social capital (versus the intentional inclusion of new knowledge sources) and the persistence of ties from start-up to the early growth phase. The data collected for a subset of the Portuguese biotechnology sector are analysed with a view to answer to four research questions: i) To what do extent firms’ rely on entrepreneurs’ personal networks, activating their social capital to access scientific and technological knowledge at start-up; ii) To what extent are new actors added to knowledge networks at start-up; iii) Are there differences between existing and new ties in terms of strength and formalisation?; iv) Is there tie persistence in knowledge networks between the start-up and the early growth phases? The results obtained confirm the consideration of the strategies underlying network building is vital for an understanding of the configuration of young science-based firms’ knowledge networks. They reveal the existence of different network building strategies and appear to indicate a tendency for continuity of attitudes over the companies’ life. They also suggest that differences in the network building strategies may be the behind the somewhat contradictory results presented in the literature about the network configuration that is more favourable for innovatio

Building innovation networks in science-based young firms: the selection of knowledge sources

The paper investigates the strategic choices made by young science-based firms regarding the selection of knowledge sources. Data collected on Portuguese biotechnology firms are analysed with a view to answer to two research questions: whether, to what extent and in which conditions science-based entrepreneurs activate their social capital and/or build new knowledge relationships at start-up; whether and to what extent the knowledge relationships established at start-up persist and/or the firm builds relationships with new organisations. The results confirm the importance attributed to tie persistence but they also show that science-based firms need to search for new knowledge sources from the very early stages. Thus, their start-up behaviour departs from the one often depicted by the entrepreneurship literature, that emphasises the mobilisation of the entrepreneurs' social capital. Results also show that persistence of ties established at start-up is lower than would be expected

Knowledge networks in science-based start-ups : actors and strategies

The paper investigates the strategic choices made by young science-based firms’ regarding the selection of knowledge sources. Drawing on two streams of research – on alliances and on social networks – two different dimensions of this strategy are considered: the activation of the entrepreneurs’ social capital and the intentional inclusion of new knowledge sources. The data collected for a subset of the Portuguese biotechnology sector are analysed with a view to answer to three research questions: i) To what do extent firms’ rely on entrepreneurs’ personal networks, activating their social capital to access scientific and technological knowledge at start-up; ii) To what extent are new actors added to knowledge networks at start-up; iii) Are there differences between existing and new ties in terms of strength and formalisation. The results obtained confirm the consideration of the strategies underlying network building is vital for an understanding of the configuration of young science-based firms’ knowledge networks. They reveal the existence of different knowledge network building strategies that often combine tie persistence with search for novelty. They also suggest that differences in the network building strategies may be the behind the somewhat contradictory results presented in the literature about the network configuration that is more favourable for innovation

Social Networks and the entrepreneurial process in molecular biotechnology in Portugal : from science to industry

DINÂMIA'CET, Junho de 2011This paper addresses the network building strategies followed by Portuguese biotechnology start-ups, as well as their implications for the configuration of firms’ networks. Results show that firms combine the use of entrepreneurs’ social capital with an effort to build up new relationships, thus allowing the resource search space to be expanded. The network building strategy is influenced by the team’s characteristics and the nature of the resources searched (knowledge, complementary assets, credibility), which generate different network structures. Results also highlight context-related specificities, such as the central role of research organizations in accessing non-technological resources and the relevance of international relationships.FC

Types of proximity in knowledge access by science-based start-ups

This paper addresses the strategies adopted by science-based start-ups to gain access to knowledge resources at different spatial levels. The goal of the paper is to investigate the presence and relative importance of ties endowed with different types of proximity in firms’ knowledge networks, as well as the role played by non-geographical proximity in gaining access to knowledge sources, both located nearby and at a distance. For this purpose we develop an analytical framework that permits to distinguish between two dimensions of proximity: geographical, associated with the spatial location of the actor; relational, associated with the origin of the tie – leading to different modes of proximity that are further linked with modes of knowledge access (formal or informal). We also develop a methodology to reconstruct the knowledge networks, permitting to identify origin, location and nature of the ties and to position them along modes of proximity. The results show that the incidence and mix of these modes of proximity vary in firms’ individual networks, being possible to identify different patterns of knowledge access. But they also uncover the overall relevance of “relational proximity”, whether or not coexisting with geographical proximity and often compensating for its absence. The paper contributes to our understanding of knowledge access strategies of science-based start-ups and uncovers the spatial spanning role played by the entrepreneurs’ personal networks

Educação e expressão musical em crianças com lesão cerebral: paralisia cerebral

O trabalho que se segue pretende focar quais os benefícios que uma criança com Paralisia Cerebral pode alcançar ao frequentar as aulas de Educação e Expressão Musical. Neste sentido, a temática-alvo em análise é a paralisia cerebral, debruçando-se no contributo da área de Educação e Expressão Musical no desenvolvimento cognitivo de uma criança esta patologia

The entry strategies of research-based firms in the transition to a sustainable energy system

ABSTRACT: The paper discusses the entry strategies adopted by research-based firms introducing advanced renewable energy technologies (RET) in the electricity production sector and their interactions with regime incumbents. Drawing on the sustainability transitions and the strategic management of technology literatures we build an analytical framework and apply it, in an exploratory way, to firms operating in two very diverse energy niches – wind and wave energy – using in depth-case studies. The results suggest that new entrants tend to depend on complementary assets possessed by incumbents, but have conditions to protect their technologies from expropriation; and that the technologies are relevant for (at least some) incumbents, which show interest on them, or are directly involved in their development/use. This is, in most cases, conducive to ‘cooperation’ strategies, which assume different forms according to the stage of development of the technology and its proximity to incumbents’ competences and assets.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Portfólio: um instrumento de avaliação co-construído

O presente estudo reporta-se a um projecto de investigação-formação/ investigação-acção desenvolvido no Conselho de docentes de educação pré-escolar do Agrupamento Vertical de Escolas de Alfândega da Fé e que teve a duração de um ano lectivo. A forma como se concebeu e organizou a formação bem como o processo formativo das educadoras envolvidas, constituem as reflexões deste trabalho. A experiência de uma educadora na implementação dos portfólios revelou-se também como uma fonte importante de problematização não só do processo de implementação dos portfólios mas também das implicações formativas que a investigação-reflexão-acção constituiu no seu percurso

The role of entrepreneurs social networks in the creation and early development of biotechnology companies

The main research question addressed in this paper concerns the way entrepreneurs’ social networks affect the opportunity identification and the access and mobilization of resources in a science-based field – biotechnology - facilitating the founding of new firms. For this purpose we adopted an analytical framework combining contributions from the technological entrepreneurship and the social network literature and, on this basis, we proposed: i) that entrepreneurs social networks, both those associated with their academic and professional trajectories and those intentionally build already having the firm as a goal, are critical to access the wide range of resources necessary to create a new firm in this type of field; ii) that different network configurations are associated with the access and mobilisation of different types of resources. We developed a methodology that combines several methods usually applied separately and that permits to assemble of a vast array of data capturing the nature and contents of a wide range of relationships. This methodology was applied to a sub-set of the Portuguese biotechnology industry – the molecular biology firms. Globally this research provides evidence that contributes to on-going debates in the area of social networks and entrepreneurship, both at the methodological and empirical levels. At this stage the main contribution regards the development of a methodology that was found to offer important insights into the behaviour of science-based entrepreneurs in their search for key resources for firm formation. The results obtained, although still exploratory, already provide some indications concerning the conditions for biotechnology entrepreneurship in countries that are peripheral relative to the major concentrations of biotechnology knowledge and business