Alessandro Grandi

Business incubators and new venture creation: an assessment of incubating models

Abstract Incubators assist emerging ventures by providing support services and assistance in developing their business. We map business incubators into four categories: Business Innovation Centres (BICs), University Business Incubators (UBIs), Independent Private Incubators (IPIs), and Corporate Private Incubators (CPIs). We then argue that the variety of incubating organizations is driven by the evolution of companies’ requirements and needs, which encourage incubators to differentiate the range of services that they offer. We believe that differences in the way incubators run their businesses can be described by two main incubating models ( Model 1 and Model 2 ), providing incubators with useful indications on how to position themselves strategically. We identify a list of incubator ‘characterizing’ variables to highlight the main differences between the four types of incubators and to describe the incubating models. Empirical evidence is provided on the two incubating models derived from case studies of eight Italian incubators.

Unusual peptides containing the 2,6-diaminopimelic acid framework: Stereocontrolled synthesis, X-ray analysis, and computational modelling. Part 2

Abstract The stereocontrolled synthesis of peptides 6, 9 and 14, structural variants of 2,6-diaminopimelic acid, was carried out starting from the chiral synthon 1, easily obtained from l -valine. The configuration of the introduced stereogenic centres has been assigned on the basis of 1H NMR spectroscopic data. X-Ray crystal structure and conformation analysis of 5 are also reported.

The Contribution of University Business Incubators to New Knowledge-based Ventures: Evidence from Italy.

This paper examines the role of university business incubators (UBIs) in supporting the creation of new knowledge-based ventures. UBIs are described as effective mechanisms for overcoming weaknesses of the more traditional public incubating institutions. They offer firms a range of university-related benefits, such as access to laboratories and equipment, to scientific and technological knowledge and to networks of key contacts, and the reputation that accrues from affiliation with a university. The empirical analysis is based on the Turin Polytechnic Incubator (TPI) and on case studies of six academic spin-offs hosted at TPI. While TPI does not effectively resolve such problems as inadequate access to funding capital and the lack of management and financial skills in its tenant companies, the networking capacity of incubating programmes is seen as a key characteristic that may help new knowledge-based ventures to overcome such difficulties.

Evolution of Incubation Models: Evidence from the Italian Incubation Industry.

This paper addresses the role of incubators in supporting new venture creation. A mapping of four different types of incubator is proposed: corporate private incubators (CPIs), independent private incubators (IPIs), business innovation centres (BICs) and university business incubators (UBIs). This mapping is exemplified through case studies of one incubator for each of the four categories. The authors argue that one interpretative key to explain the dynamics of the incubation industry is the evolution of company requirements and consequently of the services offered by incubators. In this context, two different incubating models are described which provide incubators with useful indications as to how they should position themselves strategically.

Introducing Activity-Based Costing in Farm Management: The Design of the FarmBO System

Recent research indicates that farm managers do not rely on adequate informative support in their decision making processes. This paper proposes a model of a Farm Management Information System which integrates the Activity-Based Costing approach. In describing the design and development of the “FarmBO” system, it provides a detailed functional requirement definition and the description of a working system prototype. The solution is designed to show the impact of general costs on the different crops, allocating them on the basis of the production cycle complexity. It includes a report section directly linked to the database which provides crop balance sheets and simulations in terms of what-if analyses. The system allows farm managers to 1) analyze deviations between budgeted and actual costs; 2) compare crop balance sheets across different years; 3) perform sensitivity analyses. This work accounts for prototype validation in two farms and discuss results and possible developments. Introducing Activity-Based Costing in Farm Management: The Design of the FarmBO System

Coupling hydrodynamic and wave models: first step and sensitivity experiments in the Mediterranean Sea

This work describes the first step towards a fully coupled modelling system composed of an ocean circulation and a wind wave model. Sensitivity experiments are presented for the Mediterranean Sea where the hydrodynamic model NEMO is coupled with the third-generation wave model WaveWatchIII (WW3). Both models are implemented at 1/16° horizontal resolution and are forced by ECMWF 1/4° horizontal resolution atmospheric fields. The models are two-way coupled at hourly intervals exchanging the following fields: sea surface currents and temperature are transferred from NEMO to WW3 by modifying the mean momentum transfer of waves and the wind speed stability parameter, respectively. The neutral drag coefficient computed by WW3 is then passed to NEMO, which computes the surface stress. Five-year (2009–2013) numerical experiments were carried out in both uncoupled and coupled mode. In order to validate the modelling system, numerical results were compared with coastal and drifting buoys and remote sensing data. The results show that the coupling of currents with waves improves the representation of the wave spectrum. However, the wave-induced drag coefficient shows only minor improvements in NEMO circulation fields, such as temperature, salinity, and currents.

Risorse, competenze e incubatori di impresa

This paper focuses on the role played by incubators in supporting new venture creation. We claim that the evolution of incubators’ industry is driven by market changes and by Internet development. We map business incubators into four categories: Business Innovation Centers (BICs), University Business Incubators (UBIs), Independent Private Incubators (IPIs) and Corporate Private Incubators (CPIs). It is argued that the variety of incubating organizations is driven by the evolution of companies’ requirements and needs, which prompts incubators to differentiate their services’ portfolio. The Resource Based View (RBV) is used to illustrate differences - at incubator level - in the resources and competencies offered to new ventures. We distinguish between incubators providing new ventures with their own resources and competencies and those selecting resources and competencies which are external to their value chain and that are eventually transferred to their tenants. The RBV helps new ventures in identifying incubating models that better fit their needs, and incubators in identifying success factors and in strategically positioning themselves. Empirical evidence of competencies, resources and services offered by different typologies of incubators to their tenants is provided through case studies of four Italian incubators.

Multi-nest high-resolution model of submesoscale circulation features in the Gulf of Taranto

Recent oceanographic field measurements and high-resolution numerical modelling studies have revealed intense, transient, submesoscale motions characterised by a horizontal length scale of 100–10,000 m. This submesoscale activity increases in the fall and winter when the mixed layer (ML) depth is at its maximum. In this study, the submesoscale motions associated with a large-scale anticyclonic gyre in the central Gulf of Taranto were examined using realistic submesoscale-permitting simulations. We used realistic flow field initial conditions and multiple nesting techniques to perform realistic simulations, with very-high horizontal resolutions (> 200 m) in areas with submesoscale variability. Multiple downscaling was used to increase resolution in areas where instability was active enough to develop multi-scale interactions and produce 5-km-diameter eddies. To generate a submesoscale eddy, a 200-m resolution was required. The submesoscale eddy was formed through small-scale baroclinic instability in the rim of a large-scale anticyclonic gyre leading to large vertical velocities and rapid restratification of the ML in a time-scale of days. The submesoscale eddy was confirmed by observational data from the area and we can say that for the first time we have a proof that the model reproduces a realistic submesoscale vortex, similar in shape and location to the observed one.

Measuring the Sea: Marsili’s Oceanographic Cruise (1679–80) and the Roots of Oceanography

ABSTRACTThe first in situ measurements of seawater density that referred to a geographical position at sea and time of the year were carried out by Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsili between 1679 and 1680 in the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Marmara Sea, and the Bosporus. Not only was this the first investigation with documented oceanographic measurements carried out at stations, but the measurements were described in such an accurate way that the authors were able to reconstruct the observations in modern units. These first measurements concern the “specific gravity” of seawaters (i.e., the ratio between fluid densities). The data reported in the historical oceanographic treatise Osservazioni intorno al Bosforo Tracio (Marsili) allowed the reconstruction of the seawater density at different geographic locations between 1679 and 1680. Marsili’s experimental methodology included the collection of surface and deep water samples, the analysis of the samples with a hydrostatic ampoule, and the use of a reference wate...

Aligning consultants' routines and organizational identity to foster exploration and exploitation

Although hard to be preserved, a balance between exploration and exploitation becomes pivotal for competing in changing environments. As some theoretical speculations suggest, consultants as ‘innovators’, given their cognitive distance, favor the development of exploration, and, consultants as ‘legitimators’, having lower cognitive distance, stimulate exploitation. We investigate how organizations can pursue exploration and exploitation leveraging their relation with consultants. In our three cases studies, companies ensuing exploration and exploitation are investigated with semi-structured interviews and content analysis. Through a three-step coding of interviews and documents, we built a grounded model which explains how new routines from consultants become the object of a process of alignment in companies. We found that managers and employees assess the alignment of new routines with what their organization is. Surprisingly, what is affected by the introduction of new routines is organizational identity: while some existing attributes of identity are reinforced through legitimation, others are introduced through innovation. We contribute to the understanding of the role of external knowledge in the development of exploration and exploitation capabilities in consulting projects showing how capabilities can originate from an alignment process of new routines with very intimate attributes of organizational identity, which routines from consultants are attained to match.