Search results

There has been a significant rise in the number of patents originating from academic environments. However, current conceptualizations of academic patents provide a largely homogenous approach to define this entrepreneurial form of technology transfer. In this study we develop a novel categorization framework that identifies three subsets of academic patents which are conceptually distinct from each other. By applying the categorization framework on a unique database of Swedish patents we furthermore find support for its usefulness in detecting underlying differences in technology, opportunity, and commercialization characteristics among the three subsets of academic patents.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse technology‐based entrepreneurship and its importance for economic growth. Firstly, it discusses the concept of technology‐based entrepreneurship, and, secondly, it moves on to question if the phenomenon is important for regional growth. New technology‐based firms (NTBFs) can influence economic growth both directly, by their own growth, and indirectly, for example, by providing specialised input to other firms. Quite frequently those indirect effects are established within a regional context.

This paper contributes knowledge about the relatively successful Swedish case. Based on several of the author's earlier studies, some empirical data are used to illustrate some characteristics of the Swedish case. The background and origin of Swedish NTBFs, as well as the growth of these firms, are discussed. Since, technology‐based entrepreneurship is a strongly regional phenomena special attention will be paid to one of Sweden's major regions; the Gothenburg region.

The paper shows that the number of technology‐based new firms corresponds to a small share of general entrepreneurship. Technology‐based entrepreneurship is a highly regional phenomenon, where local large firms are important for the training and breeding of future entrepreneurs. Spin‐off processes are likely to enhance regional knowledge development and learning processes because it involves the diffusion and sharing of technological and managerial expertise within the region.

The results suggests that a country like Sweden, with high R&D spendings and innovative activities, should be encouraged to increase its entrepreneurial activities in order to benefit even further from its R&D and technology development.

Is of value by adding to the knowledge on technology‐intensive firms – how they tend to grow, how frequent they are and their role in economic growth.

Despite a growing interest in both women and university academic entrepreneurship, there are very few studies addressing women's academic entrepreneurship. The authors address this gap by focusing on university incubators for women's academic entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze the significance of university incubators for the promotion and development of women's academic business start‐ups.

The authors use a unique Swedish database for multivariate statistical tests on the performance of groups of women‐ and men‐led ventures, as well as on groups of women incubatees. The database includes data for over 1,400 ventures, out of which 210 ventures are by women entrepreneurs.

About 15 percent of the ventures in the incubators are started and managed by women entrepreneurs. Several significant differences were found between the groups, but the overall conclusion is that the Swedish incubators in this study do not show any evidence of being able to decrease the gender gap in the commercialization of university science.

The study makes three important contributions. First, it applies a multilevel design that takes into consideration the relationship between individual firms and the incubator environment. Second, the authors conducted their analysis on women academic entrepreneurs who start their ventures in incubators, which means that the authors are concerned with a specific knowledge‐intensive context, where men and women entrepreneurs possess fairly similar levels of human capital. Third, the unique database allows statistical analysis on a large data set, which provides research‐based knowledge about the conditions for entrepreneurial career development among women in academic environments.

This chapter focuses on Swedish university students studying entrepreneurship and establishing new firms. It is well known that the establishment of new firms is important for economic growth, innovation and job creation. For quite some time, public debate and policy initiatives, as well as research, have focused on how to improve growth of new firms. More than 30 years of entrepreneurship research reveal, however, that differences in personality traits provide little explanation of why some entrepreneurs are more successful than others. Instead, it is suggested that it is the behaviour of individuals that make them entrepreneurial, and that this behaviour is influenced by experience and learning (Gustafsson, 2004; Politis, 2005). The question is thus whether entrepreneurship education will influence the entrepreneurial behaviour of students.

The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to recent research on women's entrepreneurship, focusing on Nordic countries.

The paper encourages research that investigates how context, at the micro, meso and macro level, is related to women's entrepreneurship, and acknowledges that gender is socially constructed.

This paper finds evidence that recent calls for new directions in women's entrepreneurship research are being followed, specifically with regard to how gender is done and how context is related to women's entrepreneurial activities.

This paper assesses trends in research on women's entrepreneurship, mainly from the Nordic countries.

Attempts to consider how a founder has reduced equivocality in relation to support networks and reducing risks, especially in an international environment. Presents the case studies of five Danish and Australian born global companies. Considers different global models and their limitations. Presents the findings of recent surveys in this area. Concludes that internationalization has not been the primary objective in the founding process and gives direction for further research.