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University business incubators (UBIs) are born as tools of the academic world to market research results, for the transfer of technology and to promote entrepreneurial spirit. In these contexts, the exchange of knowledge among entrepreneurs can be a key variable for the development and success of their businesses. This paper aims to analyse the characteristics of entrepreneurs' resources and the institutional logic that prevails in the incubator as determinants of the exchange of knowledge, and the authors examine the results in terms of entrepreneurial commitment and the generation of innovations.

The empirical study carried out on a sample of 101 entrepreneurs in UBIs in Spain and The Netherlands.

The results reveals how complementarity, supplementarity and transferability of resources, as well as incubator predisposition towards business are fundamental for the exchange of knowledge, the development of entrepreneurial spirit and the generation of innovation.

This study makes a contribution towards an understanding of how relationships between university entrepreneurs provide access to and help create useful knowledge for the parties, with this resource constituting one possible source of sustainable competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the early development stages of International New Ventures (INVs). Specifically, the authors explore how INVs acquire and leverage four kinds of capital – strategic, managerial, financial and social – to recognise a foreign opportunity, begin the pre-foreign entry activities, and finally start the INV.

A stage-based, multidimensional framework was used to investigate how INVs acquire and use the four capitals throughout the internationalisation process. Drawing on four case studies of high-tech INVs, this study tracks their development in three stages: foreign opportunity, pre-foreign operation and post-foreign operation.

Results indicate INVs build advantages and internationalisation activities occur before formal operations begin. INVs deliberately orchestrate certain kinds of capital contingent to the specific internationalisation stage. Further, the authors find that not all types of capital are equally important throughout the internationalisation process: INVs identify foreign opportunities when endowed with managerial and social capital; INVs source a majority of their managerial and financial capitals externally before internationalising; and INVs only contribute all four capitals simultaneously after internationalising.

Findings contribute to knowledge about the development of INVs pre-internationalisation and pre-founding. The study is limited to a comparative sample of INVs, which impacts the generalisability. However, the findings provide a starting point for investigating similar effects using more representative samples.

Entrepreneurs can be proactive in networking activities to allow them greater opportunity to interact with potential resource providers dependent on the stage of internationalisation.

This study contributes to the international entrepreneurship literature with qualitative evidence of the micro-level processes of internationalisation. Very few studies investigate the early, pre-internationalisation and pre-foundation, development stages of INVs.

A growing body of academic research has examined the effectiveness of entrepreneurship training and support initiatives, with recent studies focusing on the provision of training and other skills development opportunities. An important theme that has emerged from this work is the failure of many programmes and initiatives to take on board the particular needs of the entrepreneurs in developing training and support systems. By extending research in this area, this article considers the importance of education and training to the economy and focuses on the particular value of entrepreneurship education and training. Some of the fundamental themes in the literature are reviewed, including the difficulties involved in categorising entrepreneurship education and training; the issue of whether or not entrepreneurship can be taught; the content of entrepreneurship programmes and the cultural and evaluative considerations. The article discusses and compares training and support provision for entrepreneurs in Ireland and The Netherlands.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the adoption process of innovative asphalt equipment in road construction and how the level of knowledge as characterised by the level of education in the companies affects this process. The emphasis is on equipment used for transporting asphalt from asphalt plant to construction site or at the construction site itself. It is assumed that the uptake of this equipment is influenced by the radicality of the innovation and the company's level of education.

In this research, the innovation behaviour of construction companies is assessed through a case study, an expert opinion, and an industry survey (of which 55 per cent of the total population participated).

The results show that on average, experts and companies alike give more radical equipment innovations less adoption chances. Companies prefer to make minor improvements and perceive no benefits in implementing a risky radical equipment innovation. Companies that have a higher level of knowledge are found to show a more positive and professional attitude towards implementing innovative asphalt equipment.

The defined knowledge is restricted to the formal level of education of both management and the firm in one part of the construction industry. The knowledge indicator used in this study has a high validity (it is easy to measure). Further research could focus on other types of knowledge affecting innovation adoption in other parts of the construction industry.

The value of this study is that it addresses the important questions of how managers of construction firms select equipment and how it is affected by the level of knowledge.

Increasingly, academics, practitioners and governments recognise the need to examine the role and effectiveness of entrepreneurship training and support. Studies to date have examined the importance of training and other skill development opportunities in promoting entrepreneurship in the context of different sectors, regions and countries. An important theme to emerge from the research is the failure of some programmes to take on board the cultural, educational and social background of the “entrepreneurs”, leading to ineffective training and support. This paper investigates the effectiveness of training and support initiatives for entrepreneurs in Ireland and The Netherlands, examining the experiences of 57 entrepreneurs from the services, manufacturing and high technology sectors in Ireland and The Netherlands. The results highlight the value of non‐formal support structures, such as mentoring and networking, and question the value of traditional formal business education and training strategies.

This paper focuses on the university science park incubator element of the technology transfer process where knowledge in a variety of forms needs to be retained and maintained. The aim is to investigate the networking competencies of stakeholders involved in the university technology transfer process using absorptive capacity theory to explore how knowledge is externally retained and maintained through these network relations.

This paper undertakes an inductive theory building approach using in‐depth multiple stakeholder interviews (n=30). The transcripts and results were analysed using open coding and NVivo. Six technology transfer meetings were also observed.

The findings show that developing and maintaining network relationships can significantly aid the development and retention of knowledge within the university technology transfer process. It was found that conscious effort is made to retain relationships with network stakeholders. Prior knowledge, partner knowledge complementarity and reciprocity, resulting in collective learning, were found to motivate stakeholders to engage in external knowledge retention strategies. The results also supported suggestions in previous literature that relative capacity is an antecedent for absorptive capacity within organisations.

The paper helps in establishing a research agenda for knowledge retention in technology transfer where traditionally the emphasis has been on development of knowledge. The absorptive capacity framework provides a consistent theoretical basis for exploring the role of stakeholders in this area.

The paper focuses on how knowledge can be retained in technology transfer settings rather than being restricted to that of development. The use of the absorptive capacity framework has also enabled the concept of relative capacity to be developed within the research giving much needed empirical investigation into its relevance and feasibility.

This paper seeks to provide insights into key areas of business support used by technology entrepreneurs who start businesses in north west Wales.

This research uses a qualitative research approach and a purposive sample of eight small technology firms based on and off technology parks. A card research methodology is piloted in one firm and then incorporated into semi‐structured interviews with entrepreneurs.

Technology entrepreneurs access direct and indirect support including: grants from local and central government; help from, banks and professionals; universities; technology incubation units, and; collaborations and networks. Evidence also confirms some of the challenges that entrepreneurs face in accessing business support.

This research provides clear indications to public sector organisations, universities and business support agencies as being the most important aspects of business support needed for new technology‐based firms.

Successful development of technology firms is recognised as a driver for change, particularly in deprived regions. Solutions to issues faced by technology entrepreneurs in terms of business support and accessibility to grants may increase the likelihood of business success and the boosting of local economies.

Although researchers have explored the value and role of university incubator firms and the role of networks, and also the importance of geographically situated incubation units in relation to stimulation of innovation and entrepreneurial activity, there is a paucity of research in the area of business support for technology entrepreneurs which this paper addresses.

Using stakeholder theory the paper seeks to investigate how technology incubators manage and balance the expectations of stakeholders, and the effect on the shaping of technology incubators and their chances of success.

Incubator programmes have been introduced with multiple goals. A case study is conducted in order to examine stakeholders based on their power to influence, the legitimacy of the relationship and the urgency of claim, and how incubators deal with stakeholder expectations.

Incubator management involves balancing a complex set of conflicting goals. Expectations are interdependent, hierarchically organised, and involve sub‐processes related to different stakeholders. Goals are not fitted to an operational context. Consequently, suboptimal solutions are chosen to balance and fulfil expectations sufficiently to ensure survival. Three strategies to balance stakeholder expectations are identified.

The stakeholder theory approach adopted shows how incubators manage the expectations of their various stakeholders, and so may explain why studies on incubator performance produce diverse results.

The effectiveness of incubators is difficult to assess due to multiple, and often moving, targets. There is a great risk that incubators aim for the goals that are easiest to measure and focus on short‐term results. Social returns of incubators can be reduced if incubator managers choose suboptimal solutions to balance the demands of different stakeholders.

Rather than accepting normative assumptions, the paper contributes to the critical analysis of the technology incubator ideal. Through stakeholder analysis the paper demonstrates how incubators are shaped by the struggle to balance conflicting goals.