209,407 research outputs found
Realizing Potential: The Impact of Business Incubation upon the Absorptive Capacity of New Technology Based Firms
This article explores the potential of university technology business incubators to enhance the
absorptive capacity of new technology-based firms. The research pursues three critical themes: it
employs the absorptive capacity construct to analyse and evaluate the potential of incubation to
strengthen the business model of new technology firms. It then explores the interaction between
founders and incubator directors, mentors and business advisers to assess how this might
enhance absorptive capacity. Finally, it indicates how such interactions can facilitate the transition
from potential to realised absorptive capacity. The article interrogates the incubation process by
using the absorptive capacity framework to evaluate how it might strengthen the business model
of new technology firms. The qualitative findings suggest that where founders, advisers, mentors
and incubator directors engage collaboratively to create an iterative dialogue which informs the
development of a viable business model, the process by which potential absorptive capacity can
be fully realised is substantially strengthened
Assessing the performance of technology transfer offices: An analysis of the relevance of TTOâs outcome configuration and aspiration performance
The paper investigates the technology-transfer productivity of Spanish public universities. The proposed approach allows the development of a framework that matches universitiesâ technology transfer concerns with the need to accurately analyze the role of the outcome configuration of technology transfer offices (TTOs). We analyze technology transfer productivity of Spanish universities during 2006-2011 by computing total factor productivity models rooted in non-parametric techniques, namely the Malmquist index. The results confirm that technology transfer productivity is affected by changes in the configuration of the TTOâs outcome portfolio that result from benchmarking own and market peersâ performance levels. While benchmarking own performance levels facilitates the exploitation of internal resources and yields superior productivity results, changes in TTOâs portfolio based on comparisons with market peers might generate greater operational costs that negatively impact productivity.Postprint (published version
Dynamic capabilities and knowledge management: an integrative role for learning?
Modern strategic management theories try to explain why firms differ, because new sources of competitive advantage are keenly sought in the dynamic and complex environment of global competition. Two areas in particular have attracted the attention of researchers: the role of dynamic capabilities, and the firm's abilities for knowledge management. In this paper, we argue that there is a link between these two concepts, which has not been fully articulated in the literature. The aim of the paper is therefore to ascertain the conceptual connection between them as a basis for future research. Our proposed framework acknowledges and critiques the distinct roots of each field, identifies boundaries, and proposes relationships between the constructs and firm performance
Innovation, competition and public procurement in the pre-commercial phase
Should the supply or the demand side bear the risk connected to innovation? The two polar cases identified in the literature are the supply push and the demand pull. The former is the typical one, with the supplier bearing the costs and obtaining the benefits from innovating. The latter is technology procurement, where the buyer takes the risk, by procuring the innovative good or service. With respect to this, pre-commercial procurement is a peculiar solution that can explain the debate found in the literature relative to its configuration either as a supply-side or a demand-side instrument. The separation from the commercial phase allows the procurer to take only (part of) the risks connected to R&D services. Also, competition among suppliers gives the opportunity of evaluating different solutions and to obtain, in the commercial phase, a lower price for the innovative good. The counterpart of all this is a large portion of risk being left to the supplier. As a consequence, suppliers need to obtain a larger share of the benefits of the innovation process. This economic reason, besides the legal restrictions on State aid, explains the need for a shared risks-shared benefits approach, centred on the agreements on the assignment of IPRs
Knowledge source preferences as determinants of strategic entrepreneurial orientation
In the knowledge intensive context, firmsâ capacity to integrate external and internal
sources of knowledge becomes an important competitive advantage and may
distinguish entrepreneurial from conservative firms. This paper explores the
proposition that differences in strategic entrepreneurial orientation (EO) across firms
may be significantly determined by differences in firmsâ preferences regarding
knowledge sources. Our research is based on 208 firms operating in knowledge
intensive industries in six Central and East European countries (CEEC). We
identified three types of firms in terms of patterns of sources of knowledge: external
R&D knowledge based firms, in-house knowledge based firms and value chain
dependent firms. By using different proxies or different dimensions of EO, we have
found that the EO is strongest in firms based on external knowledge. Firms with inhouse
based knowledge have an intermediate strength of the EO, and firms dependent
on value chains are the least entrepreneurially oriented. We have also found moderate
support for grouping different proxies of EO into three dimensions identified in
literature â innovativeness, pro-activeness and risk-taking. Value chain firms are not
pro-active, have the lowest innovativeness, and are the most risk averse. External
knowledge based firms are the most active in all three dimensions of EO, while inhouse
knowledge based firms are in an intermediate position. Our results point to
strong systemic features of entrepreneurial activities; i.e., EO is inherently different in
different sub-populations of firms depending on their patterns of sources of
knowledge. It seems that these patterns operate as a moderating factor between
performance and the EO, which explains mixed results from the literature
Technology and the economy
Overview of economics of innovatio
Complex City Systems
Information and communications technology (ICT) is being exploited within cities to enable them to better compete in a global knowledge-based service-led economy. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, cities exploited large technical systems (LTSs) such as the telegraph, telephony, electrical networks, and other technologies to enhance their social and economic
position. This paper examines how the LTS model applies to ICT deployments, including broadband network, municipal wireless,
and related services, and how cities and city planners in the twenty-first century are using or planning to use these technologies.
This paper also examines their motivations and expectations, the contribution to date, and the factors affecting outcomes.
The findings extend the LTS model by proposing an increased role for organizations with respect to an individual agency.
The findings show how organizations form themselves into networks that interact and influence the outcome of the system at the
level of the city. The extension to LTS, in the context of city infrastructure, is referred to as the complex city system framework.
This proposed framework integrates the role of these stakeholder networks, as well as that of the socioeconomic, technical,
and spatial factors within a city, and shows how together they shape the technical system and its socioeconomic contribution. The CCS framework has been presented at Digital Cities Conferences in Eindhoven, Barcelona, Taiwan, London and at IBMâs Global Smart Cities Conference in Shanghai between 2010 and 2012. Its finding are timely in the context of major policy decisions on investments at regional, national and international level on ICT infrastructure and related service transformation, as well as the governance of such projects, their planning and their deployment
Entrepreneurial Roles Along a Cycle of Discovery
The literature on entrepreneurship recognizes a variety of entrepreneurial roles, and the question arises what roles are played when and by whom.In this article, roles are attributed to different stages of innovation and organizational development.A central theme is the relation between discontinuity, in radical innovation (exploration), and continuity, in application, diffusion and adaptation (exploitation).Use is made of a concept of a 'cycle of discovery', which seeks to explain how exploration leads on to exploitation, and how exploitation may yield exploration, in a step-by-step development towards radical innovation.Parallel to this there are processes of organisational development.entrepreneurship;innovation;discovery;organizational learning
Toward a process theory of entrepreneurship: revisiting opportunity identification and entrepreneurial actions
This dissertation studies the early development of new ventures and small business and the entrepreneurship process from initial ideas to viable ventures. I unpack the micro-foundations of entrepreneurial actions and new venturesâ investor communications through quality signals to finance their growth path. This dissertation includes two qualitative papers and one quantitative study. The qualitative papers employ an inductive multiple-case approach and include seven medical equipment manufacturers (new ventures) in a nascent market context (the mobile health industry) across six U.S. states and a secondary data analysis to understand the emergence of opportunities and the early development of new ventures. The quantitative research chapter includes 770 IPOs in the manufacturing industries in the U.S. and investigates the legitimation strategies of young ventures to gain resources from targeted resource-holders.Open Acces
- âŠ