James Cunningham

The Contributions and Disconnections Between Writing a Business Plan and The Start-up Process for Incubator Technology Entrepreneurs

Business plan writing seems the panacea to gain stakeholder legitimacy and financial backing. Our chapter explores the contributions and disconnections between business plan writing and the start-up process for incubated technology entrepreneurs. The study is set in the South East Enterprise Platform Programme (SEEPP), an incubator programme for technology graduate entrepreneurs in the South East of Ireland. Using a purposive sample of technology entrepreneurs in start-up mode, we took a qualitative approach consisting of content analysis of 40 business plans and in-depth interviews with 25 technology entrepreneurs. Our research found that writing a detailed business plan constrains the technology entrepreneur’s natural penchant for action, compelling them to focus on business plan writing rather than enactment. Technology entrepreneurs favour a market-led rather than funding-led operational level document to plan, and learn from, near-term activities using milestones.

Business Failure and Entrepreneurship: Emergence, Evolution and Future Research

Business failure research has been the focus of renewed interest in the entrepreneurship field. It is complex, being both a sign of economic vibrancy and the source of great individual trauma. An understanding of these complexities is important to academics, practitioners and regulators. This monograph provides a review of the literature to date. It charts the emergence of business failure research in the finance literature through to its recent development within the contemporary entrepreneurship field. The multidiscipline nature of business failure research is explored through incorporation of studies from accountancy, information systems, social psychology, general management, economics and entrepreneurship. Research on the topic is diverse; the lack of a universally accepted definition of failure coupled with the absence of an underpinning theory has resulted in an expansive range of studies. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive and critical review of business failure research, bridge the gap between the various perspectives, and develop a cohesive understanding of the phenomena, upon which future studies can be based.

Publicly Funded Principal Investigators as Transformative Agents of Public Sector Entrepreneurship

National governments consistently implement an array of public sector entrepreneurship policies and activities, seeking to generate further economic activity and create new networks and market opportunities that reduce market risks and uncertainties for market-based technology exploiters. This means that scientists taking on the role of being a publicly funded principal investigator (PI) is at the nexus of science, government and industry, and can have a significant influence and impact on shaping and delivering outcomes of public sector entrepreneurship policies and activities. Within the emerging public sector entrepreneurship literature (see Leyden and Link 2015; Link and Link 2009), we argue that publicly funded PIs as key public sector entrepreneurship transformative agents, through scientific novelty and originality involving some creative and innovative processes that can be exploited for opportunities with good market or societal potential. Publicly funded PIs are key agents of what Leyden and Link (2015:14) define as public sector entrepreneurship:

Building intellectual capital in incubated technology firms

Purpose – The value of relational capital generated by entrepreneurs with their internal and external environment (Hormiga et al., 2011a, b), provides considerable resources when properly leveraged. It is particularly important in environments such as the high tech sector of incomplete information and weak economic markets such as new products, markets or technologies (Davidsson and Honig, 2003). The purpose of this paper is to examine how incubated technology entrepreneurs build relational capital for a new venture formation in the social context of a Higher Education Institution. Design/methodology/approach – The study took a qualitative approach based on content analysis of business plans and in-depth interviews with 25 technology entrepreneurs on an incubation programme – South East Enterprise Platform Programme – for technology graduates in the South East of Ireland. Findings – The study found that technology entrepreneurs during new venture formation engaged in four types of relational capital activ...

Irish Ports: Commercialisation and Strategic Change

For many countries, ports are critical to trade flows. If they operate efficiently, the whole economy benefits – and if not it suffers. Worldwide, they have recently been candidates for commercialisation or even privatisation. This case history describes the commercialisation process in the Irish Republic, which gave leading ports freedom to manage their own affairs as separate, independent, publicly-owned companies. The countrys unprecedented economic growth, which was export-led, increased the pressure on the ports sector and may even have masked continuing inefficiencies and difficulties at individual ports. The Irish Government is now pressing ahead with reform of the remaining, smaller ports, using the experience of the first phase of commercialisation.

What factors inhibit publicly funded principal investigators’ commercialization activities?

ABSTRACT This paper examines what factors publicly funded principal investigators (PIs) perceive as inhibiting their involvement in commercialization activities. PIs are important knowledge brokers in public science but while the emerging literature on PIs has primarily focused on identifying their multitude of roles and responsibilities, much less is known about their experiences in commercialization specifically. It remains unknown what challenges inhibit PIs from pursuing commercialization when shaping their competitive research proposals. To begin to address this topic, this study draws on semi-structured interviews with 24 funded health science PIs in New Zealand. The study found that a lack of confidence in the expectations and consistency of funding body review processes, as well as a lack of appropriate support and resources within the university, can deter PIs from incorporating commercialization activities in their research agendas. The implications of these findings for the literature and practice are also discussed.

Regenerative failure and attribution

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the processes that occur between entrepreneurs’ primary attribution for failure and the emergent learning dimensions from failure, in the context of regenerative failures.,The study focusses on 21 entrepreneurs operating in the producing services sector, a major subsector of the Irish Information and Communication Technology industry. All the entrepreneurs experienced business failure and subsequently re-entered the entrepreneurial sphere at a later date. A qualitative approach examines their attributions for failure, responses to failure, and learning dimensions from failure.,Regenerative entrepreneurs’ primary attributions for business failure are examined in detail; four types of failure attributions are uncovered – internal individual level; external firm level; external market level; and hybrid attributions. Entrepreneurs’ attributions impact their responses to the failure; this in turn affects entrepreneurial learning. When failure is primarily attributed to internal factors, the entrepreneur’s response is affective, leading to deep, personal learning about oneself. External attributions (both firm level and market level) result in a primarily behavioural response, with learning focussed on the venture, and networks and relationships. Those primarily attributing failure to hybrid factors have a largely cognitive response and they learn about venture management.,This study is a retrospective analysis of business failure.,The study contributes to the growing literature on entrepreneurs’ attributions for business failure by focussing on regenerative failure; it links attributions to – responses to, and learning from, failure. The key contribution to knowledge emerges from the development of a model of the underlying processes affecting learning from failure for regenerative entrepreneurs. The research also establishes and identifies clear links between attributions, responses, and lessons learned in the context of regenerative failure.

Leadership Changes and Approaches During Company Turnaround

This study examines the effect of leadership changes on (1) the initiation of organizational turnarounds, (2) turnaround performance, and (3) the leadership approaches adopted. Set in an Irish context, we use four in-depth case studies purposefully selected at different stages of the turnaround process. In our findings we describe under what circumstances chief executive officer (CEO) changes are likely; the importance of humility, trust, and integrity to turnaround leadership; and why certain companies might purposefully delay the implementation of CEO changes. In addition, we found that newly appointed outsider CEOs and insider leaders who are not replaced are differentiated in the manner by which they manage expectations and implement retrenchment-oriented moves at the outset of the turnaround process.

Enablers and barriers to university technology transfer engagements with small- and medium-sized enterprises: perspectives of Principal Investigators

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to bring forward the Principal Investigator (PI) observations on the enablers and barriers to successful technology transfer of university research to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), taking a micro-perspective which has not been the focus of any research attention to date. Using a qualitative approach set in an Irish research context, this exploratory study found personal relationships, asset scarcity and proximity issues as barriers and enablers to technology transfer engagements with SMEs. The exploratory study also found that PIs were frustrated with their dealings with technology transfer offices and their research relationships with SMEs were not sufficiently valued by their universities.

Creative Economies in Peripheral Regions

Economies are dynamic entities and subject to constant flux. Driven by changing tastes, new ways to make and disruptive innovations, new routes of economic development present themselves at ever increasing rates. This study is concerned with the rise of the creative economy. UNCTAD has marked the emergence of the creative economy across the globe and noted its resilience in the face of recent economic turmoil. Here, the authors intend to bring the level of analysis down to the regional and firm level by uncovering the extent of the creative economy in some of Europe’s most peripheral regions. This is the first study to draw on international research carried out across four EU member states to add to the neglected area of the creative economy of peripheral regions. The work contributes to expanding theory in the areas of economic geography, business studies and regional development.