The motivation for this thesis stems from the widespread desire across various policy levels to accelerate the energy transition. While large established companies play a crucial role in this transition, owing to their substantial R&D capacity and their deep integration within socio-technical systems, this thesis focuses on young, agile companies. These emerging companies, have “little to lose”, can bear more risks and are flexible to easily penetrate specialized market niches. This thesis specifically examines innovative start-ups, with a particular emphasis on university spin-off companies.
The thesis investigates the determinants of innovative entrepreneurship and firm survival on the time required for market introduction and the longevity of spin-offs in the sustainable energy sector. The empirical analyses in this thesis draw on an original database of university spin-off companies, tracked retrospectively from 1998 to 2018. The spin-offs are founded in five countries: Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, chosen for their long-standing favourable national innovation systems (NIS), and the Netherlands and Norway, selected for their comparatively less favourable NIS and sustainable energy landscapes during part of the study period.
The data collection employed a mixed-method approach, incorporating face-to-face interviews, which, when possible, were conducted in two moments; first shortly after company formation and second interview was taken several years later. Data gathering was supplemented by telephone interviews and information from written sources such as company websites, university websites, investment consortia reports, and reports by sustainable energy organizations, and multi-level policy bodies. This time-intensive methodology ensures data reliability. The final dataset comprises 106 companies...

This paper pictures several risk-taking strategies of young high-tech firms in bringing energy inventions to market and ways urban policy (municipalities) may provide supporting facilities and help accelerate the energy transition. Derived from a longitudinal study of 100 firms in northwest Europe, two findings contribute to practice. Firstly, a share of almost 40 percent of university spin-off firms fails in the market introduction; if the market introduction is reached, 30 percent is relatively late. This development calls for attention to acceleration and risk-taking concerns. However, risk-taking firm strategies, like targeting radical inventions and new markets, tend to hamper early market introduction. Secondly, urban policy supports filling risk-related needs, particularly in large metropolitan networks. Cities (municipalities) may act as launching customers and provide sites and organizations for practical experimentation (e.g., in living labs) alongside steering on cross-faculty application platforms at the university that also connect with city functions. Cities’ initiatives, however, tend to be fragmented and miss priority. Partnering in Triple Helix networks with local universities and businesses may improve the situation, for example, by priority setting, better alignment, and integration. The urban policy also has a role in improving broader conditions, particularly the attraction of related R&D firms to the city/region and the attraction and retention of top-class researchers.

Municipalities are increasingly involved in energy transition planning. There are, however, doubts about whether municipalities are an adequate organization and scale level for this. In this context, the article aims to picture developments of local young technology firms in bringing energy inventions to market, in particular, how municipalities have provided support to them. Such aim, in the context of energy transition, is new. Derived from study in Nordic countries and The Netherlands, two findings make a valuable contribution to literature. Firstly, a share of almost 40% of young technology firms fails in market introduction, and if reached the market, a 30% is rather late. Barriers stem from high risk-taking, late (no) collaboration, and limiting circumstances in metropolitan cities. Secondly, municipalities’ initiatives appear useful in filling young technology firms’ needs, but the initiatives are fragmented and miss priority. However, partnering in professional start-up organizations tends to improve the situation, indicating that the municipal level is promising in transitional change with regard to new technology. In contrast, driving energy transition through regional cluster building, includes different levels of functional interdependence, territorial scale, networking and governance, causing manifold complexity and uncertainty. Not all (large) municipalities seem able to act in a promising manner, however, much empirical research needs to be done.

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 better understanding, this paper explores differences in market-introduction (time)and underlying factors. It draws on a carefully selected sample of almost 40 university spin-offs in Europe and it applies rough-set analysis to explore relationships. The results suggest a high probability of positive development if spin-offs grow up in a 'Innovation Leader' country (like Sweden and Denmark) and employ multiple networks. A second set of favourable factors include a practical mind-set in the founding team through education merely at MSc level and accessing of substantial investment capital. In contrast, hampering factors include being involved in solar energy technology as a 'follower', while employing one-sided/poor collaboration networks. Overall, the results suggest substantial differentiation among spin-offs, and concomitant practical (policy) implications.

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 related to strategic choices, competences, and interactions with (national) ecosystem conditions. We use a unique dataset of almost 110 university spin-off firms and a small selected sample from this set. A total of 60% of spin-offs are able to reach the market, most of them in the first five years of spin-offs' lives. Wind energy provides the best chances, as compared to such things as solar photovoltaics (PV) and advanced biomass. In-depth results suggest the high probability of quick market introduction in 'Innovation Leader' countries, like Sweden and Denmark, if combined with employing rich collaborative networks. A second set of favorable influences includes a practical mindset and accessing substantial investment capital. In contrast, strong risks tend to be connected to activity in fundamental inventions, highly specialized technology, weakly developed (sub) markets, poorly built networks, and short refunding time of substantial investment. This study provides a unique contribution to understanding the market introduction of sustainable energy solutions and risk-taking in this effort by young high-tech firms, among others, connected to differences between countries.

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, university spin-off firms,bring inventions in sustainable energy to market in a quickly manner. The study draws on aselected sample of spin-offs (37) and four case-studies in Northwest Europe, and appliesrough-set analysis to explore the influence of different sets of conditions. We observe that thefollowing conditions provide the highest chance for a quick development, namely, located inan ‘Innovation Leader’ country and involved in multiple networks. Next important is acombination of practical orientation (founders) and access to substantial investment capital.In addition, we observe that time may be critically important, for example, in a quickfinancing of a global sales organization and in pay-back time after substantial investment.