Journal of Technology Management & Innovation
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University Spin-off Creation by Spanish Researchers in Agricultural Engineering.
Get PDFThis paper describes how a team of university professors and graduate students created a technology-based company (spin-off) to as a means to deliver their research findings to the agricultural sector. The spin-off company was based on the use of new methodologies, equipment, instrumentation and sensors initially developed for various research projects. Successful field tests and positive feedback from farmers initially prompted the development of the spin-off. The spin-off progress has been observed and recorded from the idea phase through the company start-up until the second round of financing (October 2007 to January 2010). Since limited time scales are commonly found in agriculture, the spin-off company provided a way to deliver timely research results to the agricultural community. Although university research results may eventually end up in the agricultural sector, in many cases this process requires a lot of bureaucracy and time. Spin-off companies can be flexible tools to transfer this knowledge and technology to the agricultural sector, as well as providing direct career opportunities for graduate students and PhD students
Managing Risks in SMEs: A Literature Review and Research Agenda
Get PDFIn times of crisis, companies need to carefully monitor current expenses and forecast potential costs, which could be caused by risky actions. Risk is inherent in all business functions and in every kind of activity. Knowing how to identify risks, attribute a value and a priority scale, design actions and mechanisms to minimize risks, and continuously monitor them, are essential to guarantee companies’ survival and create sustainable value. This is especially true for small- and medium-sized businesses that are most exposed to the harmful effects of the risks, due to limited resources and structural features. The objective of this study is to analyze available literature on the subject of risk management for small- and medium-sized enterprises from 1999 to 2009. The analysis derives interesting characteristics from the scientific studies, highlighting gaps and guidelines for future research
Análisis de los Mecanismos de Transferencia Tecnológica entre los Sectores Científico-tecnológico y Productivo de Argentina
Get PDFThis paper addresses the behavior of technology transfer offices in Argentina, which are defined as interface structures between the productive sector and the scientific, technological and educational areas. In that sense, results from a quantitative analysis of the different interaction mechanisms displayed by these organizations in order to facilitate this interaction are provided. By means of a depth statistical framework it was possible to define and rank different variables related to both the characteristics of these offices and the productive sector. The analysis of the relationship among those variables allowed making inferences about the way technological transferring units behave as facilitators of processes that foster the partnership between those who produce knowledge and those who benefit from its use.ResumenEl objetivo de este artículo es analizar el comportamiento de las estructuras de gestión que, en la Argentina, actúan como interfaz en la relación entre los sectores científico-tecnológicos y los productivos. Estas estructuras son denominadas “Oficinas de Vinculación Tecnológica y Transferencia”. En ese sentido, se presentan los resultados obtenidos a partir del análisis cuantitativo de los distintos mecanismos de gestión de la interacción entre ambos sectores. A partir del procesamiento estadístico de información de base, se obtuvieron resultados que permitieron definir y categorizar distintas variables relacionadas con las características de estas oficinas y de los sectores de la demanda. El análisis de la relación entre estas variables, permitió obtener información de base a partir de la cual se realizan inferencias acerca del comportamiento general sobre la generación y gestión de los mecanismos que regulan su relación con los sectores científico-tecnológicos y los productivos en la República Argentina. Palabras clave: mecanismos de transferencia de conocimiento, sistema nacional de innovación, estructuras de interfaz, oficinas de vinculación tecnológica y transferenci
International Regional Patterns of R&D Networks Involving Low Tech SMEs
Get PDFA large number of studies have emphasized the spatial proximity of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in various types of connections. Far less attention has been paid to the understanding of the determinants of ‘cultural’ and geographical proximity in international R&D cooperation projects involving SMEs and the role of the quality of the Regional Innovation System (RIS). Using a database of completed European Cooperative Research projects, we conclude that: 1) technologically more complex projects are more likely to involve ‘culturally’ and geographically distant partners; 2) RIS related variables determine ‘cultural’ proximity but not geographical proximity; 3) at first sight surprisingly, international cooperation projects involving the 1st promoters of innovation-led regions (high patent propensity and high human capital levels) are culturally more distant
Consumers’ Acceptance and Use of Information and Communications Technology: A UTAUT and Flow Based Theoretical Model
Get PDFThe world has changed a lot in the past years. The rapid advances in technology and the changing of the communication channels have changed the way people work and, for many, where do they work from. The Internet and mobile technology, the two most dynamic technological forces in modern information and communications technology (ICT) are converging into one ubiquitous mobile Internet service, which will change our way of both doing business and dealing with our daily routine activities. As the use of ICT expands globally, there is need for further research into cultural aspects and implications of ICT. The acceptance of Information Technology (IT) has become a fundamental part of the research plan for most organizations (Igbaria 1993). In IT research, numerous theories are used to understand users’ adoption of new technologies. Various models were developed including the Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior, and recently, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. Each of these models has sought to identify the factors which influence a citizen’s intention or actual use of information technology. Drawing on the UTAUT model and Flow Theory, this research composes a new hybrid theoretical framework to identify the factors affecting the acceptance and use of Mobile Internet -as an ICT application- in a consumer context. The proposed model incorporates eight constructs: Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions, Social Influences, Perceived Value, Perceived Playfulness, Attention Focus, and Behavioral intention. Data collected online from 238 respondents in Saudi Arabia were tested against the research model, using the structural equation modeling approach. The proposed model was mostly supported by the empirical data. The findings of this study provide several crucial implications for ICT and, in particular, mobile Internet service practitioners and researcher
Las Microfinanzas como Instrumento de Apoyo al Sector Microempresarial en Chile: Estado y Desafíos
Get PDFThe paper analyzes the microfinance sector in Chile: its origins, evolution and actual condition. The results showthat microfinance is a relatively new activity in the country whichinvolves both, Profit and Non Profit Organitations, all of them supported by the public sector. The microfinance activity is mainly characterized for the delivery of microcredits for microenterpreuners, in a context where it does not exist a specific regulation for the sector. In adittion, it is possible to see that there arenot many studies that showthe impacts that microfinance programs have on microenterpreuners
Interaction Among Universities, Government and Spin-off Companies in a Brazilian Context to Generate Sports Innovation
Get PDFThe aim of this paper is to describe a study into Brazilian academic spin offs that are developing innovative products and services for the sports market, based on the triple helix model. The results show the characteristics of the products and services of the spin offs in the sporting field that were studied, their innovation sources and the financial resources they have received, as well as the university and government role in stimulating these innovations
Análisis de Las Capacidades Emprendedoras Potenciales y Efectivas en Alumnos de Centros de Educación Superior
Get PDFThere were identified four factors that determine the enterprising potential capacity of a pupil belonging to higher education centers (attributes of the entrepreneur, interpersonal capacities, capacities opposite to the risk and attitude of the entrepreneur). On having organized into a hierarchy using the AHP method, it concluded the vectors of priority giving a major importance for attitude and attributes of the entrepreneur, which as a whole represent 76%. The index of enterprising potential capacity was 74% and the percentage of pupils with effective enterprising capacity was 16%. This gap of development of enterprising capacity represents a strategic challenge for each higher education centers, to contribute to its value and in addition to the local, regional and national development. There proposes a model of analysis of the enterprising capacities, who would allow significant achievements in the formation of effective enterprising capacities
Is Business Creation the Mean or the End of Entrepreneurship Education? A Multiple Case Study Exploring Teaching Goals in Entrepreneurship Education
Get PDFEntrepreneurship education within higher education has experienced a remarkable expansion in the last 20 years (Green & Rice, 2007). However, entrepreneurship education is still in its infancy; professors propose diverse teaching goals and radically different teaching methods. This represents an obstacle to development of foundational and consistent curricula across the board (Cone, 2008). This study was designed to understand entrepreneurship instructors’ teaching goals. Results suggest that the group of instructors studied pursued two types of profoundly different teaching goals. Some of them were trying to teach how to start a successfully business while another group was trying to develop entrepreneurial skills. Those two types of teaching goals have important implications in terms of pre selection of students, the mandatory or voluntary character of the curriculum, and type of teaching methods used. For instance, if the goal is to create business, students should be selected according to the potential of their ideas, the regimen should be voluntary (students legitimately may want to become great employees), and business plan as teaching methods should be understood a mean rather than an end
Predicting Success in Product Development: The Application of Principal Component Analysis to Categorical Data and Binomial Logistic Regression
Get PDFCritical success factors in new product development (NPD) in the Brazilian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are identified and analyzed. Critical success factors are best practices that can be used to improve NPD management and performance in a company. However, the traditional method for identifying these factors is survey methods. Subsequently, the collected data are reduced through traditional multivariate analysis. The objective of this work is to develop a logistic regression model for predicting the success or failure of the new product development. This model allows for an evaluation and prioritization of resource commitments. The results will be helpful for guiding management actions, as one way to improve NPD performance in those industries