André Spithoven

Formal R&D management and strategic decision making in small firms in knowledge‐intensive business services

Small research and development (R&D) active firms in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) can be characterised as technology experts in niche markets. Their reliance on expertise in one or a few key technology areas involves a continuous challenge to make strategic decisions in terms of future technology and market positioning. The formal management of R&D is considered an important part hereof. However, besides the fact that it is no common practice in about half of these companies, little is known about formal R&D management in small firms in KIBS. This paper addresses this gap using a combined quantitative and qualitative research approach. The starting point for the descriptive quantitative empirical analysis is a representative sample of small R&D active firms in KIBS provided by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development business R&D survey for Belgium. The presence of formal R&D management is related to aspects of dynamic capabilities. The qualitative research is based on strategic choices in the innovation strategy in 12 purposively chosen small firms during the period 20052011. It maps the evolution of the firms technology and market positioning within a setting adapted to small firms in KIBS, and highlights its relation with formal R&D management. The analysis reveals that formal R&D management in small firms in KIBS can be related to more complex linkages between internal innovation strengths and opportunities in the firms external environment. Moreover, formal R&D management in KIBS is found to be closely related to dynamics in strategic decision making in terms of market positioning and to innovation success. The influence of formal R&D management on the technology focus in small firms in KIBS turned out to be of minor importance.

The knowledge paradox explored: what is impeding the creation of ICT spin-offs?

There has been an increased interest in technology transfer activities. This increased interest is inspired by the observation that not all generated knowledge gets translated into commercial products or processes, which is generally referred to as the knowledge paradox. Many researchers have studied academic spin-offs. Within the resource based view of the firm the technological, human and financial starting resources of academic spin-offs have been studied. Little research has however studied the extent to which these resources are affecting spin-off establishment. This paper sheds light on the extent to which different resources were impeding ICT spin-off establishment. The results show that financial resources were hardly affecting ICT spin-off creation, whereas some human and technological resources had a high impact on the spin-off process. These findings call for an increased attention by policy makers and research institutes to provide support in bridging the gap between science and market.

EXTERNAL R&D: EXPLORING THE FUNCTIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS OF R&D PERSONNEL

Knowledge has become an important production factor. Tacit knowledge is embodied in the minds of people, and is part and parcel of their skills. Since businesses concentrate on strategic tasks, many others are outsourced. This also applies to R&D. External knowledge sources help firms to leverage their internal R&D efforts. Internal and external knowledge have to be knitted together on the work floor giving rise to innovative products and processes. Since tacit knowledge is embodied in personnel, it is interesting to look at the role of the functions and the qualifications of R&D personnel in relation to activities developed in the framework of technical collaboration agreements. Using the OECD business R&D survey for Belgium, insights are offered in the way that external knowledge impacts on the organisation of the internal division of labour. It is demonstrated that absorptive capacity, embodied in people, is a key element in using external knowledge.

Technology intermediaries in low tech sectors: The case of collective research centres in Belgium

Abstract Firms have become increasingly open towards collaboration to become more innovative. Opening up the innovation process and letting knowledge percolate through the boundaries of the firm is however not a guarantee to success. Many small and medium sized firms simply have insufficient resources to collaborate on innovation and lack in-house absorptive capacity to capture the results thereof In Belgium the collective research centres have specialised in various activities related to R&D collaboration and technology transfer. As such they act as technology intermediaries. This paper positions these particular players in the innovation system. Further, it provides an insight into how collective research centres help firms, many of which are low tech SMEs, to build absorptive capacity for R&D activities. In this way, this paper aims at filling a gap in the literature, which has mainly focused on technology transfer in high tech sectors, technology transfer from universities to companies and government initiatives that stimulate tech transfer. We find that collective research centres are unique actors in the innovation system, engaging in both R&D and technology transfer activities to an extent that depends on their size, R&D budgets and number of members and aiming at strengthening the members’ absorptive capacity.

The role of business centres in firms' networking capabilities and performance

An extensive stream of literature has studied incubators, however, few researchers have focused on business centres, which typically host a broader set of firms, including medium- and low-tech firms. This paper studies the role of business centres in the networking capabilities of their residents and the impact of residence at a business centre on performance. While we find the networking capabilities of business centre residents to be more developed than those of non-residents, this mainly seems to originate from a selection mechanism, with business centres attracting residents with greater networking capabilities. The impact of residence at a business centre on a firms performance is less obvious. While we find that residence at a business centre has a (marginal) positive effect on employment growth, no significant impact was found for revenue growth. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

The role of open innovation and absorptive capacity in innovation performance : empirical evidence from Slovenia

Although research on open innovation practices in larger and smaller organisations has been growing for over a decade, there has been limited evidence on the topic related to new and candidate members of the European Union. Existing studies of open innovation have predominantly focused on the examination of the phenomenon in companies from the most developed European countries (i.e. EU15). In this research, we examine how absorptive capacity and open innovation interact to impact innovation performance, based on a large dataset of companies operating in Slovenia. We contribute to the literature on open innovation by showing how an organisation’s capacity for open innovation can be used to its full potential in order to impact the firm’s performance.

Inter organizational trust and technology complexity: evidence for new technology-based firms

Integrating the transaction cost economics and relational perspectives, this paper puts forward that technology complexity within new technology‐based firms negatively influences the level of interorganizational trust in key partner relationships. Using a data set of 105 key partner relationships of 59 new technology‐based firms, we find that the new technology‐based firms level of trust in its key partners is lower when the level of technology complexity is high. Findings further show that both relationship and partner characteristics moderate the technology complexity—trust relationship. These results show that technology complexity as an appropriability mechanism becomes endogenous to collaboration, thereby extending the Teece framework.

Spatial perspectives on knowledge brokers: Evidence from Brussels

Knowledge brokers have emerged as a new type of actors shaping scientific production, influencing science–policy relationships, and thereby contributing to regional competitiveness. Yet, the spatial dimension of these knowledge brokers has received little attention. Using Framework Programme participations in European cities, we analyse and discuss the location strategy of knowledge brokers, highlighting the importance of co-location with the funding source. Our findings show that knowledge brokers are clustered in Brussels, and not elsewhere, to be closer to the European Commission in order to access strategic, informal and tacit information, while contributing to the construction of transnational R&D networks. While this ‘local buzz’ has positive side effects on the regional innovation system of Brussels; knowledge brokers emerge as a new type of spatially clustered actors shaping the distribution of EU funding for ‘European knowledge pipelines’.

Pecuniary and Scientific Motives as Drivers of PhD Careers: Exploring the Evidence from Belgium

The central theme in our chapter revolves around the question of why university graduates choose to start a doctorate. Do they decide to write a doctoral dissertation to improve their competencies and skills so they have better access to high-level, better-paid jobs on the labor market? Or is this decision also based on intrinsic motivations, such as a passion for scientific research and its inherently problem-solving nature? To borrow some of the terminology introduced by Lam (2011), we could formulate our research question as follows: are university graduates motivated by financial rewards (‘gold’), academic status (‘ribbon’) or scientific challenges (‘puzzle’)? In the rest of the chapter, we will focus on the gold and the puzzle; we did not take into account a variable for ribbon in our analyses. This was partly dictated by the absence of a direct, reliable proxy but also by a concern not to make our models overly complex. The measurement of extrinsic, pecuniary motivation can be done by making use of the variable salary. However, salary can also have a broader interpretation given that upward movements on the hierarchical ladder of organizations are mostly accompanied by salary increases. According to the principles of human capital theory, employees acquire knowledge, competencies and skills on the jobs they perform and this accumulation of human capital is partly capitalized in their salary level. Topel (1991), for example, found that 10 years of seniority increases salaries in general by more than 25 %.

Managing Open Innovation

Open innovation is about firms’ external relations with other firms and organisations. It is a topic which has attracted an immense amount of attention, but which has also been heavily criticised due to the diversity of the ideas and fuzziness of its key concepts. To date, the bulk of the literature on open innovation draws on case study material to illustrate the operation of firms in an anecdotal way. By contrast, this book examines open innovation practices by using large-scale datasets and stresses their impact on firm performance. The authors examine four key issues: differences between firms in open innovation practices, public funding to enhance external relations, R&D outsourcing of firms, and the role of human resources in R&D and innovation.