This paper introduces Technology Business Incubation (TBI) as a field of study and practice, exploring the concept, its evolution, and scholarship. Science parks, incubators and accelerators are TBI ...mechanisms considered to be important policy tools for supporting innovation and technology-oriented entrepreneurial growth. Their popularity is premised on the belief that these mechanisms provide critical value-added inputs essential for the creation and development of innovative Technology-Based Firms (TBFs). However, determining what type of TBI mechanisms and policies are most conducive to achieving the desired results is very much mission-driven and context-specific. A review of the past three decades of incubation literature, emerging practice, and future trends reveals that despite ongoing debate about their contribution and challenges, the future of TBIs is promising, and there are rich opportunities for research.
This paper investigates the concept of the entrepreneurial university by examining roles of academic entrepreneurship departments in driving regional economic development outcomes. While a wealth of ...research investigates the role, activities and function of the entrepreneurial university, very little which focuses specifically on academic entrepreneurship departments, where much of the research, teaching and knowledge exchange concerning entrepreneurship takes place. Two case studies of large and active entrepreneurship departments are presented to illustrate the different roles and activities they undertake in the sphere of economic development in their regions or locales. A dual model of engagement is proposed, whereby the entrepreneurship department operates within the framework of the entrepreneurial university, but also as a regional actor in its own right.
This article introduces various aspects of technology business incubators (TBIs), emphasizing their increasing role in the spatial context where they are used as platforms and drivers of regional ...entrepreneurial ecosystems. It outlines the key themes of the emerging role of TBIs in sustainable regional development: TBI biodiversity of ecosystems; accelerating startups in the entrepreneurial university; TBI mechanisms challenged by green technology to sustain regional development; and TBIs’ connecting role between entrepreneurship education, experiential knowledge, and regional development. It proposes an agenda for future research on the role of TBIs as bridging mechanisms and drivers of entrepreneurship and regional development.
Science, Technology and Engineering Entrepreneurship Education (STEE) might raise student awareness towards the opportunities seeking challenges of entrepreneurship to promote technology transfer. ...However, despite the face validity of teaching technology entrepreneurship, there has traditionally been a weak link between the fields of research entrepreneurship education, and technology management and commercialization literature. In this introductory article, we ask whether entrepreneurship could be taught to students in engineering, science and technology majors via the use of dedicated teaching models. We highlight the prevailing approaches in STEE and identify two main research streams. We discuss promising research avenues for extending research on STEE focusing on the background and profile of target audiences, and assessing their impact on students’ learning outcomes. Finally, we provided summaries of the papers in the special issue and how they contribute to wider understanding of the effective models of STEE.
Research Summary
Anticipating that innovation nurtures entrepreneurship, we began an extended case study of an innovative start‐up in the space industry. We quickly saw that institutions imposed ...formidable barriers to implementing entrepreneurship from innovation. Curious about how, why and the extent of this situation, we widened our study to other start‐ups, CEOs of existing businesses, an incubator, a technology transfer office and key influencers in large space companies and agencies. We found that institutions and policies had, in effect, shrunk the entrepreneurial field, leaving little room for enterprise. Conceptualizing from this, we propose the institutions create an “entrepreneurial space.” Theoretically, we explain how this concept of an entrepreneurial space can be usefully applied in other contexts.
Managerial Summary
The space industry is extremely innovative. It is also dominated by two powerful incumbent firms and a third that is highly regulated. This research examines how entrepreneurship in the space industry is shaped by institutions, and what this implies for the freedom to be entrepreneurial. We investigate this question in the French European context. We find that while the industrial context and institutions had completely pushed entrepreneurship out of the upstream segments it flourished in the margins of this industry. The upstream segment is not at all entrepreneurial; downstream is the entrepreneurial milieu of the space industry. We recommend that policymakers (a) strengthen private‐public‐partnership arrangements; (b) implement policies to attract venture capitalists to transform and reinvigorate the upstream segment; and (c) design specific incubation mechanisms for space start‐ups.
Purpose Although earlier research suggests a positive relationship exists between engaging in entrepreneurial marketing activities and firm performance, there may be contingent issues that impact the ...association. This investigation unpacks the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing behaviour and firm performance under the moderating role of coopetition, in an immediate post-COVID-19 period. Design/methodology/approach A resource-based theoretical lens, alongside an outside-in perspective, underpins this study. Following 20 field interviews, survey responses via an online survey were obtained from 306 small, passive exporting wine producers with a domestic market focus in the United States. The data passed all major robustness checks. Findings The statistical findings indicated that entrepreneurial marketing activities positively and significantly influenced firm performance, while coopetition provided a non-significant moderation effect. Field interviews suggested that entrepreneurs’ attemps to scale up from passive to more active export activities in an immediate post-pandemic period helped explain the findings. Owner-managers rejoined trustworthy and complementary pre-pandemic coopetition partners in the immediate aftermath of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for domestic market activities. In contrast, they had to minimise risks from dark-side/opportunistic behaviour when joining coopetition networks with partners while attempting to scale up export market activities. Originality/value Unique insights emerge to unpack the entrepreneurial marketing–performance relationship via the moderation effect of coopetition, namely, with the temporal setting of an immediate post-COVID-19 period. Firstly, new support arises regarding the likely performance-enhancing impact of owner-managers’ engagement in entrepreneurial marketing practices. Secondly, novel findings emerge in respect of the contrasting role of coopetition in both domestic and export market activities. Thirdly, new evidence arises in relation to a resource-based theoretical lens alongside an outside-in perspective, whereby, strategic flexibility in pivoting facets of a firm’s business model needs effective management following a crisis.
This article explores the role of start-ups within entrepreneurial ecosystems in driving the transition towards a circular economy. It emphasises the importance of understanding and supporting ...circular start-ups for broader sustainability impacts. Unlike established firms, start-ups can readily adopt ambitious circular business models (CBMs) without the risk of business model cannibalisation and with the agility to adapt to market trends. CBMs enhance value creation, delivery and capture resource flows in an optimised non-linear fashion. Scaling up CBMs is crucial for overall economic, social and environmental benefits. Hence, leveraging the key entrepreneurial ecosystems actors, such as universities, business incubators and related venture development intermediaries, is vital for start-up support. In this special issue, we have invited researchers to submit contributions that delve into the dynamics among start-ups, entrepreneurial ecosystems and the circular economy, aiming to enrich our understanding of the early stage start-up development process with the aim of promoting the circular economy at a firm, regional or national level.
This article assesses the performance of a technology business incubator program, established by the French government to support innovative new science and technology-based firms (NSTBF) that seek ...to commercialize laboratory research results. With a resource-based view and an institutional approach, this study predicts why some incubators may be more successful than others in supporting the development of NSTBF. An original longitudinal data set represents the results of a public incubator program, funded following the passage of a 1999 French law on innovation and research. The findings refer to a sample of 25 operationally active incubators and their 1200 graduated new ventures. This study contributes to the literature on business incubation by showing the importance of various incubator resource inputs for aiding NSTBF projects. It thus provides useful and timely feedback for researchers and policy makers.
Purpose
– This paper seeks to advance ongoing research in entrepreneurial perseverance. While the concept of perseverance is not new, few researchers paid attention to behavioural persistence in the ...entrepreneurial context. The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of new technology based firms (NTBF) by focusing on the role of nascent entrepreneurs’ social skills in the meeting the changes of entrepreneurial perseverance.
Design/methodology/approach
– In this paper the authors study the start-up phase of entrepreneurial process. The authors opted for a longitudinal case study approach in order to enhance the knowledge on entrepreneurs’ social skills and perseverance. For triangulation purpose the data were gathered using four different information sources. The use of Nvivo8 as the data analysis tool helped to impose a discipline and structure which facilitated the extraction of core insights.
Findings
– This paper contributes to the understanding of the entrepreneurial perseverance in the context of new venture creation. Particularly, reading the entrepreneurial process through the lens of the perseverance strategies model (Van Gelderen, 2012) provided a way to identify and then to assess the impact of the social skills on the overall entrepreneurial perseverance and their combined impact on the performance of NTBF creation process. In doing so, the authors identify the impact of entrepreneurs’ social skills to deal with a series of entrepreneurial problems such as scarcity of resources, uncertainty and ambiguity and consequently their impact on the likelihood of survival for new ventures. The issues that arose mostly reflected the inherent complexity of technology transfer processes, the university and entrepreneurs’ diverging cultures, and the very characteristics of the start-up phase of NTBFs. The findings reveal how social skills impact the entrepreneurial paths and probable outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
– This paper contributes to the understanding of the entrepreneurial perseverance in the context of NTBF creation. The findings reveal how social skills and perseverance impact the entrepreneurial paths and probable outcomes.
Practical implications
– The paper has implications for entrepreneurial support mechanisms such as technology business incubators in helping them to improve the efficacy and efficiency of their assistance to entrepreneurs through the development of their skill-sets and perseverance and providing enabling networking. In addition, the research has implications for entrepreneurship education and training. Indeed, there is an urgent need to design and implement courses and programs aiming at developing soft skills in entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
– In exploring networking and issues of perseverance for nascent entrepreneurs operating in new technology-based sectors, which the authors consider as an under searched area in entrepreneurial literature.
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