Entrepreneurial risk-taking in sustainable energy: University spin-off firms and market introduction in northwest Europe

Universities are cradles of innovation, with many start-ups involved in sustainable energy solutions. The extent in which such solutions reach the market and the kind of risk-related factors young firms encounter, are hardly known and understood. We aim to clarify market introduction and focus on the empirics of firms' risk-taking behavior...

University spin-off firms and market introduction of sustainable energy inventions

Many university spin-off firms today are involved in sustainable energy technology. However, to what extent and how spin-offs reach market introduction of their inventions, is not well-understood. Spin-offs may differ in many ways, like entrepreneurial orientation and competences, and opportunities in their ecosystem. To contribute to a...

Knowledge relationships of university spin-off firms: Contrasting dynamics in global reach

This article provides an attempt to better understand the establishment of international knowledge relationships, including changes over time. Internationalization of young high-tech firms is strongly required given the drive for upscaling technology solutions and given the increased global spread of knowledge centers. To increase...

University spin-off firms’ struggle with openness in early knowledge relationships: in search of antecedents and outcomes

Little is known about how young high-tech ventures create openness in their knowledge networks. This paper explores the influence of antecedent resources on openness in knowledge networks, seen as diversity in knowledge partners, and explores the impact of openness on growth. The results from 105 university spin-off firms suggest that three...

Young university spin-off firms' internationalization: The influence of founding teams and networks

Commercialization of inventions urges university spin-off firms to develop networks abroad, particularly if they are active in a small national economy. While it is recognized that young spin-offs are vulnerable due to lack of various resources and capabilities, support in internationalization from the university is rare. We investigate...

University spin-off firms in sustainable energy in five countries: what determines their reaching of the market?

It is widely acknowledged that the transition towards a more sustainable energy productionand use needs to be accelerated. Whether young high-tech ventures can contribute to such anacceleration is a matter of debate. To contribute to this debate, this article aims to clarify theconditions under which a specific type of young high-tech ventures,...

Capability factors in changing patterns of international knowledge relationships of university spin-off firms in Northwest Europe

Industrial competence is increasingly dispersed across the globe, urging technology-based firmsin Europe to establish international knowledge relationships, sometimes even at larger distances.This paper examines patterns of international knowledge relationships and the influence ofcapability factors of university spin-off firms on building such...

International knowledge gaining: Challenges and barriers among university spin-off firms

Industrial competence is increasingly dispersed across the globe, urging young high-technology firms to build knowledge relationships across national and continental boundaries. However, building such relationships is hampered by numerous barriers following from short in experience and education of founders of these firms. In this paper, we...

Cities in sustainability innovation and transition

Transitions towards higher levels of sustainability have been subject of many investigations, both theoretically and empirically. While the focus has been on the scale of national innovation systems and technology systems, the quality of space (place) with regard to regions and cities has received scarce attention or no attention at all, thereby...

How Social Networks Affect the Performance of the University Spin-offs

From mind to market at university: How diversity in knowledge networks makes a difference

What makes some university spin-off firms more open in knowledge collaboration than other ones?

Open innovation is well conceptualized and researched for large established firms, but not for small and young ones. What makes small high-technology firms more open in search behaviour and innovation and others more closed, has remained largely unknown. This particularly holds true for university spin-off firms. The paper fills this gap and...

Social networks' openness, university entrepreneurship and differences between regional innovation systems

Enhancing the establishment and growth of spin-off firms from university is receiving an increased attention in local and regional policy today. University spin-off firms are typically in short of resources, reason why social networks play a vital role in their early growth. There is however a lack of understanding of the profile of these...

The Art of Openness: An Empirical Study of Openness on University Spin-off Firms

As an extension to the research on “Open Innovation”, this thesis, based on an empirical study of university spin-offs (USOs), intends to make some contributions to the increasing understanding of “openness”, not only for micro and small size firms, but also in another context other than U.S.. Moreover, instead of analyzing from a traditional...

The Role of University Actors in the Network Development of University Spin-offs

This exploratory and explanatory research undertakes a case study strategy. Seven university spin-offs from Delft University of Technology are studied to improve the knowledge on the way the network-related role of university actors affect the network development of university spin-offs. This research is divided into three phases: theoretical...

How University Incubators may be Overprotective and Hindering the Success of the Young Firm: Findings from a Preliminary Study

This paper investigates to what extent university spin-offs benefit from their parent organization. Drawing from the resource based view and social capital theory we identify the support factors that may turn to interference with the spinoffs business goals. This study has a case study approach and data is collected among high-tech university...