Adele Parmentola

An Individual‐Level Assessment of the Relationship between Spin‐Off Activities and Research Performance in Universities

One of the most problematic aspects in the creation of spin‐offs by university personnel concerns the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and research activity by researcher‐entrepreneurs. The literature has expressed varying and opposing views as to the nature of the relationship, but very little has been produced to empirically legitimate one position or another. The present work proposes to address this shortcoming by exploring the relationship existing between academic spin‐off generation and the research performance of enterprise founders. The study investigates whether, and to what extent, scientific performance by academic entrepreneurs is different than that of their colleagues, and if the involvement in entrepreneurial activity has an influence on the individuals research activity. The research questions are answered by considering all spin‐offs generated by Italian universities over the period 2001–2008 and evaluating, through a bibliometric approach, the scientific performance of founders relative to that of their colleagues who carry out research in the same field. The data show better scientific performance by the researcher‐entrepreneurs than that of their colleagues, and in addition, although there are some variations across fields, the creation of a spin‐off does not seem, on average, to have negative effects on the scientific performance of the founders.

The creation of Regional Innovation Systems in emerging countries: the case of Dubai

In recent years, the concept of the Regional Innovation System (RIS) has been developed. It is defined as the social system which involves interactions among different actors in a systematic way. Such interactions increase and enhance the localised learning capabilities of a region. Researchers and policymakers often do not have a clear idea about what the RIS is and what the policies are that should be implemented to create it. In the state-of-the-art literature there is often ambiguity in the use and definition of the RIS concept and the definitions regarding other local systems. Given this, the aim of this paper is to build a model that will give a narrow definition of RIS and identify the trajectories of its development. The model has been verified analysing the policies adopted for the development of an RIS in the Dubai area.

The Creation of Local Innovation Systems in Emerging Countries

Introduction.- Local Innovation Systems in Emerging Countries.- The Government-Driven LISs.- The Firm-Driven LISs.- The University-Driven LISs.

FDI knowledge spillovers and host government policies: the Iranian experience

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is aimed at analysing the influence of the host government policies on foreign direct investment (FDI) knowledge spillovers.Design/methodology/approach – Starting from the analysis of the literature, the paper has introduced a theoretical model that has been illustrated analyzing the Iranian case.Findings – Governments can promote the realisation of knowledge spillovers only if they create the conditions for improving the absorptive capacity of local firms and the connections between local firms and foreign investors (strategic approach). Moreover, in many emerging countries, governments are directly involved in relationships with foreign investors through state‐owned companies. According to this, the Iranian case shows how the direct government involvement, if it is matched with a strategic approach, can encourage the realization of FDI knowledge spillovers.Research limitations/implications – The paper presents some limitations: other quadrants of the proposed model ne...

The University-Driven LISs

Theoretical conceptions of the role of universities in local innovation systems have evolved over the past 20 years, from an initial approach that stressed the importance of knowledge spillovers from university educational and research activities into their regional knowledge spaces, towards a new emphasis on the “third role” of universities, as animators of regional economic and social development. However the typical conception is that universities and research centres in developing countries take little part in stimulating the formation of LISs, with this mission instead being substituted by the state or large companies. This chapter analyses the role and the mechanisms through which universities can contribute to creation of LISs, first from a theoretical point of view. The theoretical arguments are then supported by an analysis of the role of the National University of Singapore, in driving the development of the “Biopolis” biotech LIS.

The Firm-Driven LISs

A substantial body of literature explains how the presence of a leading firm in an LIS has positive effects on cluster development. A number of studies underline the effects that leading organizations can have on spillovers, particularly in facilitating knowledge circulation and avoiding lock-in phenomenon. Such potentials exist especially for large firms. This chapter analyses the mechanisms that leading firms can implement to favour the formation and growth of local systems. It then provides a case study of the role of Acer Inc. in developing an information-technology LIS centred around Hsinchu, Taiwan, illustrating the positive effects from a leading firm.

What drives technology transitions? An integration of different approaches within transition studies

ABSTRACT This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of transition drivers by reviewing four major strands of inquiry in transition studies: Multi Level Perspective (MLP); Strategic Niche Management (SNM); Transition Management (TM); Technological Innovation Systems (TIS). To the best of our knowledge, none of these contributions have so far provided a clear-cut classification of main drivers of transitions, as evidenced by the difficulty of practitioners in reaching goals as entrepreneurs, or policy makers in supporting economic growth. We believe that these theoretical streams share views relating the origin and drivers of transitions and that the analysis of the multi-level developments and systemic sub-processes by using the Integrative Propositional Analysis (IPA) allows for a more comprehensive identification of transition drivers. By mapping causal relationships within each perspective and by developing an integrative framework that takes in due account of overlaps between theories, we derived a new conceptual structure for the identification of transitions’ drivers.

Stages and trigger factors in the development of academic spin-offs: An explorative study in southern Italy

The purpose of this paper is to combine studies that describe the spin-off creation process with studies that analyze spin-off determinants to understand the phenomenon of spin-off development.,This paper proposes a theoretical framework to improve our understanding of academic spin-off development in southern Italy. Following a systematic combining approach, the framework is constructed by iteratively matching the concepts derived by the literature on spin-off processes and spin-off determinants with the empirical findings obtained through a case study of 19 spin-offs in southern Italy.,The combination of empirical results and literature analysis helps us to identify a general model for spin-off creation that could be particularly useful to explain the criticalities of their development.,This paper provides implications for policy-makers in southern Italy regarding factors for which intervention would support the creation of new spin-offs. This study also provides useful implications for policy-makers in other contexts, such as areas that may or may not be at a disadvantage.,The resulting framework represents an original contribution to the literature because it: links two aspects – the stages of spin-off creation and determinants of spin-off development – which are often considered separately in existing studies; explores factors that either impede or facilitate the different stages of spin-off development; provides a series of findings that can be successively tested in other studies; and sheds more light on the context of southern Italy, which has been investigated in only a limited number of previous studies.

Strategic monitoring of port authorities activities: Proposal of a multi-dimensional digital dashboard

Abstract The consequence of port evolution is that port authorities (PA) around the world are modifying their nature and their role, acquiring more and more an active role in the governance of logistic systems and are often adopting managerial and entrepreneurial behaviours. This new role of PA requires the adoption of a complex approach to monitoring the performance of the single stakeholders and of the whole port. Existing studies on port performance consider only specific indicators of port performance such as operational and financial efficiency neglecting aspects like customer satisfaction, port security and port sustainability. This paper tries to fill this literature gap: (i) outlining an integrated multi-dimensional dashboard to monitor port performance in a strategic perspective; (ii) analysing the role of digital technology to support the PA in the implementation of the monitoring dashboard; (iii) defining the evolutionary stages of tools implementation in the strategic monitoring of PAs.

The port community system as a local innovation system: A theoretical framework

A Local Innovation Systems (LIS) is defined as an innovative network characterized by the heterogeneous nature and the spatial proximity of the actors, presenting a high level of social embeddedness and a base of analytical knowledge. On the other hand, academic research on port community systems considers ports as complex systems where mechanisms of coordination and cooperation between local partners play a crucial role in supporting the competitiveness and the efficiency of the port itself. Few studies have combined to date, the perspective of port community as a complex system with the complex nature of innovation systems. The paper provides an original theoretical framework to study port communities from a local innovation system perspective. In particular, the article investigates the elements of complexity typical of a LIS in the specific case of Port Community Systems. The article will focus on the localised nature of innovation processes within a Port Community System as well as the existence of inter-organizational relationships occurring among actors of heterogeneous nature (i.e. firms, local institutions and research organizations). These relationships will be analysed according to the innovative value of the economic externalities they are able to produce and according to their ability to confer economic value to the results of academic research.