Academic Entrepreneurship Academic Entrepreneurship People with Academic degrees who found companies University spin-offs Phenomenon rare but survival of those that do start is high; (68%) Creating spin-offs is more profitable than Licensing to Established firms It all got started in the 1970s..about Silicon Valley and Route 128 West and East coast Stanford MIT Sloan Technology Meccas
Semiconductors, IT and Biotech Setback in the late 70s early 80s; Silicon Valley recovered, but MIT only lately Role-models to therest of the world Innovation Systems A genuine belief that it was indeed possible to engineer a deficiency in entrepreneurship A clear favoring of opportunistic entrepreneurship over necessity entrepreneurship. Necessity entrepreneurship does not really exist Political and Social Issue Social Entrepreneurship
Innovation Systems Case Finland Finland Population 5.2 million 69% 338.000 km2 10% urban water, 68% forest GDP, USD 128 billion
Turku Region 290,000 inhabitants; 130,000 jobs; 14,000 firms University of Finland 20 Universities 29 Polytechnic colleges 120,000 starting places Personnel 12,000 38% of the population has an academic degree
Finnish Science Parks 22 technology and science parks 550 employees 100 M turnover 1 600 enterprises 32 000 experts 1 000 000 m2 Mission of Science Parks ENHANCE INDUSTRIAL PROFILE BUILD THE IMAGE OF THE REGIONAL ECONOMY
IMPORTANT ROLE IN INNOVATION AND INDUSTRIAL RENEVAL SUPPORT THE FORMATION OF BUSINESSES NURTURE ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERMEDIATES BETWEEN ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY CATALYST FOR THE COMMERCIALISATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS TRANSFORMER OF IDEAS INTO NEW PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES Technology Profiles
Information and communications Healthcare and medical Environmental Electronics , optoelectronics Bio, pharmaceuticals Digital media, content production Food Materials Energy Logistics Measurement Metal, machine and tool Automation, lifting and moving Chemical and plastic
Laser, optics Forestry and wood Paper manufacturing Nano The Finnish Innovation System 1982 First Finnish science park 1985 Premises for enterprises
near universities, incubators 1988> Finnish Science Park Association TEKEL 1990 Commercialising research-based business ideas 1994 > Centre of Expertise Programme 1995 > Developing regional clusters, specialized services 2000 > Internationalisation
1979 Founding of National technology committee 1982 Council of State resolution on technologypolicy 1983 Founding of Tekes 1984 Commencement of Technology programmes 1991 Finland becomes a member of CERN 1992 Founding of Finnish Secretariat for EU R&D Tekes mission statement Tekes primary objective is to promote the competitiveness of Finnish industry and the service sector by technological means. Activities aim to diversify production structures, increase production and exports, and create a foundation for employment and societal wellbeing.
Turku Science Park three universities four polytechnics university hospital 13 500 employees 25 000 students 400 professors 300 companies and organizations over 210 000 m2 of premises
The Incubator Their story: nearly 150 startups 1989-2005 success rate 85-90 % nearly 800 new jobs at the moment about 30 ventures in the incubators My questions: 16 yrs 9 firms/yr
50 new jobs/yrs Only 0.5% want to start growth companies => minimum 200 firms to get 1 growth company Is this the economic engine? Assuming Innovation = Entrepreneurship Is it a recipe for opting out? Most entrepreneurs are replicators Innovative entrepreneurship (high expectation entrepreneurship; Autio, 2005) has a high 1.6% prevalence and a low 0.5% prevalence
What about the other 98.4% - 99.5%? This fraction stands for most new jobs created and economic wealth creation Technology entrepreneurship: Entrepreneruship = innovation (Schumpeter) National/Regional Innovation Systems (NIS/RIS) Policy makers attempts to increase Economic growth Entrepreneurship Employment, and Taxable income
Innovative firms a.k.a high technology companies Assumed to create high salary employment Modern version of smoke-stack industry Most firm start small and never grow; 3% manage to grow beyond 100 persons Large body of previous research - growing The ideal: Triple Helix Government Government
Indus-try University Univer-sity Indus-try b. A laissez-faire model a. An etatistic model University Government Industry c.Triple Helix The study
The aim: Seek a common understanding of what an innovation system is and what it should be Identify potential weaknesses Identify potential overlap between the organizations, and Identify what measures need to be taken in order to increase venture development and
emergence of growth companies 50 in-depth interviews; 1.5 hours; taped and transcribed Representatives of govt agencies (science park, regional development centres, area development centres, national technology agency Universities and polytechnic colleges
(researchers, rectors, deans, administrative support personnel) Entrepreneurs operating within the science park The study Survey among research and teaching personnel in three universities and one polytechnic college; response rate 23,5% N=326 Here we report on: 10
interviews from one out of the three universities researchers and administrative personnel 8 entrepreneurs Results What is an innovation system? Is there any other system than the US model; a capital and knowledge intensive environment that generates knowledge intensive growth
companies I dont know! What do you do if you have an idea? You go behind the corner and wait til it blows over, and then you back to research! We have tried to stay away as much as possible from their meetings and we want it to be that way Innovation system as seen by entrepreneurs and researchers Government
Entrepreneur Govern-ment Univer-sity Univer-sity a. An etatistic model ! The entrepreneur Industry b. A laissez-faire model ! Sources of Innovation Parallel universes: the entrepreneurs view The World
Government Univer-sity Entrepreneur Conclusions The researcher is passionate about research Involvement in entrepreneurship is time away from important research
Does not know who the relevant government bodies are Does not see itself as part of the science park The link (important) to business is through Industry collaboration; contract research; business innovation system Government: A real bureaucratic monster! The entrepreneur is part of an innovative business system not a government run national innovation system Does not think a science park
can provide any relevant support A hotel with broadband Needs university collaboration to perform basic research Problematic Different worlds Conclusions We are quite far from the ideal Triple Helix The entrepreneur is excluded The innovators is excluded A RIS or a NIS appears to assume that
ideas and potential entrepreneurs will line up if the system is in place! What do we know about university/ business collaboration Sometimes it leads to spun out business But; those conducting research in close proximity to business become better scientists and if they start businesses become more likley to succeed What do you know about the Bayh-Dole Act 1980? Made it significantly much easier to commercialize or license federally funded innovations
