A literature review of intellectual property management in technology transfer offices: From appropriation to utilization

This paper presents a systematic literature review of the intersection between intellectual property (IP) management and technology transfer offices (TTOs) in the context of universities in order to understand how TTOs manage IP. IP management is an important issue, as it both enables and restricts the utilization of research results and impacts the competitiveness of technology-based businesses. The literature review shows that previous studies of IP management in TTOs tend to adopt a simplistic view of IP management, recommending that all valuable inventions should be patented. Moreover, academic research into TTOs and actual TTO practices both appear to focus on improving efficiency and outputs measured in terms of numbers of patents, licenses and spin-offs. We call this established view the appropriation mode of TTOs and question it based on the logics of publicly funded research and modern IP management. In its place, we suggest the utilization mode of TTOs, in which TTOs manage IP from publicly funded research in order to govern innovation processes and enable utilization of research results in a broader sense. Several recommendations are provided for both researchers and practitioners

Forces affecting one Lean Six Sigma adoption process

<b>Purpose</b> The purpose of this paper is to identify forces (in the form of converters and inhibitors) of Lean Six Sigma adoption by studying the gradual adoption of Lean Six Sigma in a medium-sized Swedish manufacturing company. The paper suggests how the converters and inhibitors interact toward increased maturity of the adoption and, in this case, stagnation thereof. <b>Design/methodology/approach</b> Thirteen interviews were recorded and analyzed to identify converters that were moving the process forward or backward, as well as inhibitors that caused it to linger. <b>Findings</b> It was discovered that activities that had initially moved the process forward were not sufficient to move it beyond its current point. However, an increased knowledge of Lean Six Sigma throughout the organization now prevents the process from moving in the opposite direction. In this medium-sized Swedish manufacturing company, Lean Six Sigma becomes a framework for thought and communication during Lean work. <b>Research limitations/implications</b> The study benefited from considering forces pushing the process forward as well as backward. Thus, we suggest that future studies will benefit from focusing beyond critical success factors (CSFs) that may at times be static in nature. As a limitation, for discussions about the past, the memories of interviewees generally may have a tendency to be biased. <b>Originality/value</b> The paper contributes knowledge of Lean Six Sigma adoptions and how they may attain greater future success by reporting on difficulties and setbacks in the current gradual adoption process in a chosen company

Teaching and facilitating action-based entrepreneurship education: Addressing challenges towards a research agenda

Entrepreneurship education is an increasingly distinct domain with particular approaches emphasizing experiential and action-based design. Action-based entrepreneurship education aims to deliver authenticity in entrepreneurial experiences while simultaneously facilitating learning and fair assessment. A venture creation program (VCP) is one such type of action-based entrepreneurship education which uses the creation of a new venture as the main vehicle for students\u27 learning, complemented with more traditional educational content. Engaging students in creating real-life ventures enables unique opportunities for learning but introduces a tension between didactic and pragmatic approaches and thus various challenges for educators. This paper\u27s purpose is to address current controversies related to VCPs and offer research-driven suggestions to key challenges. The empirical investigation, consisting of focus group data and individual interviews, builds on the accumulated knowledge of a global collaborative forum for VCPs—the VCP Forum—which consists of 11 VCPs in six countries in Europe and North America. The findings highlight three main areas that present challenges to educators: (1) facilitating students\u27 venture creation processes, (2) assessment of the students\u27 work connected to real-life activity, and (3) mitigating interaction with external stakeholders. The present paper contributes to entrepreneurship education research by suggesting areas for pedagogic development that need further investigation

Relationship development patterns of university-based start-ups

In the present chapter, we focus on how start-ups become embedded in the university and industry context(s) in order to suggest a research agenda for a more systemic approach to university and industry actors when studying start-up development in entrepreneurial universities. More specifically, the story should not end in business formation but an entrepreneurial university also has roles in the further development of start-ups originating both from the university and industry. We base our suggested research agenda on a case study of the automotive and transport cluster in Western Sweden, which is established as both an academic context and an industry context. We relied both on secondary data about the case as such as well as primary data about the relationship development patterns of the 9 start-ups in the cluster. We identified 5 different patterns of how start-ups become embedded. Arguing that the development and success of university-based start-ups have to be understood in terms of how they embed in their context(s) entails several important implications for further studies connected to additional details of the development patterns, the roles universities play in the networking and embedding of start-ups and the design of collaborative platforms for collaboration between various actors.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

An Evidence-Based Research Agenda for Action-Based Entrepreneurship Education

A growing research stream is ‘action-based’ entrepreneurship education, where students actively engage in entrepreneurship and learning is primarily student-centered rather than teacher-led. In the present paper, we look to the practice of teaching in order to clarify key challenges and identify a future research agenda for entrepreneurship education. The research design revolves around a global forum for venture creation programs which consists of eleven programs in six different countries in Europe and North America. The method involves written material in order to develop a model and later semi-structured interviews based on the model. The present paper builds on previous developments within research and teaching practice regarding action-based entrepreneurship education and suggests that further research should focus on (1) students’ perspective in developing strategies to handle venture creation and academic work simultaneously, (2) strategies to develop curriculum, deliverables and assessment schemes that acknowledge the diversity among students’ venture creation processes, (3) development of tailor-made quality assurance and impact measures and (4) exploring the role of faculty in terms of their prior experience and involvement for students’ learning. We suggest that a future research agenda focus on these four issues from the teachers’ point of view, the learners’ point of view and the institutional point of view in a systematic way. Thereby, the present paper contributes to the research field of entrepreneurship education by providing an evidence-based research agenda for entrepreneurship education

Case-based entrepreneurship education in and for the Nordic region

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Explaining incubators using firm analogy

Incubators are initiated to accelerate the development of new technology-based firms. Policy actors see them as a tool to initiate or revive innovativeness in regions and universities as a way to commercialize research results. However, even though the intended results of the incubator are good it is not known how the incubator should be managed and organized in order to achieve this end. When faced with a new type of organizations analogies can provide insights gathered from other contexts. To contribute to the further understanding of incubators this paper discuss the implications, in terms of highlighted dimensions and further clarifications needed when using the analogy of a firm. The paper uses empirical findings from six incubators. The discussion shows it is not clear who is the actual customer of the incubator. For example, can the policy actors that provide the funding to the incubator be seen as a customer paying for the service of regional revival and the NTBFs customers when their fees are not in relation to the services they are provided? In the discussion it is suggested that the incubator can have many customers with different value creation processes or no customers depending on the viewpoint taken

Incubators and new technology-based firms - A resource-based view of development

New technology-based firms (NTBFs) are based upon the exploitation of a new technology. This often means that there are few other than the founder who understands the technology, and in addition the firm often aims at serving a market in a new way or operating on a presently non-existent one. Therefore, it can be hard to determine the future potential of NTBFs, and this causes growth constraints on the firm. However, the NTBFs that do survive contribute to industrial and regional growth on a long-term perspective through, for example, knowledge spillovers as well as finding and developing product concepts. The incubator on the other hand can be seen as a provider or mediator accelerating the development of promising NTBFs. As a provider the incubator mobilizes resources and adjusts them to the needs of the particular NTBF. The mediator role can instead be seen when the incubator connects the NTBF to members of the incubators external network.The basis of the resource-based view is that a competitive advantage comes from the heterogeneity in terms of resources between firms. Imitability of valuable resources makes the competitive advantage sustainable. The newness of the NTBFs implies that they are in the process of trying to obtain or develop their resources. These resources include capabilities that determine how well the organization is able to perform a certain task. Furthermore, resources like funding, patenting, human resources and intangible resources are needed. Similarly, the incubator benefits from knowledge workers, funding and continuous improvements of the knowledge base in order to serve the NTBFs and maintain fruitful external relations. Consequently, this thesis has the purpose of exploring how the obtaining of resources link incubators and NTBFs. This exploration includes three papers in which the first two are devoted to the incubator, and the NTBFs respectively, in order to understand the resource needs of these two types of organizations. However, the third paper focuses on the links between the incubator and the NTBF in terms of providing links to external actors. Further, the exploration includes empirical findings from both qualitative and quantitative data that have been gathered within the Swedish incubator program during 1999 and 2005. The concluding discussion suggests that the human and knowledge resources of the incubator increase the external resources and the capabilities of the NTBFs. A successful NTBF in turn improves the human and knowledge resources of the incubator through knowledge sharing and an increased reputation. An increased survival rate of NTBFs will also positively affect the public funding of the incubator. It is in this way that a positive spiral is created where the resources of the incubator accumulate as more and more successful NTBFs are generated. Failing NTBFs will, on the other hand, also make it more difficult for the incubator to obtain and maintain resources. Seeing the connections between incubators and NTBFs in this way further emphasizes the element of path dependency in the development of these organizations. Subsequently, there is also a long-term aspect of the expected results on regions and industries from public investments made in them