Nuria Calvo

Innovation and development cooperation in Central America and Caribbean. Mission impossible

Title – Innovation and development cooperation in Central America and Caribbean. Mission impossible?Subject area – Strategic decision making in cooperation projects. The decision deals with the process of generating a strategy for R&D and technological innovation in developing countries, through international cooperation.Study level/applicability – Students of programs of strategic management, business policy and management of international cooperation. Target courses include: strategic management seminars, international cooperation seminars, MBA.Case overview – The case shows the process carried out by a team led by Braulio Perez Astray, manager of the innovation department of the Foundation University of A Coruna (Spain) and Radhames Mejia, executive vice‐rector of the Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra (Dominican Republic) to design the strategy for R&D and Technological Innovation of the Dominican Republic. It describes the tasks and responsibilities undertaken in the INPOLTEC Project, the...

Researcher, I have heard of your innovation. Will you marry me?

Purpose This paper aims to explore the determinants of firms’ attitudes to R&D cooperation with universities with the goal to propose a model of knowledge transfer university-firm. Design/methodology/approach By understanding university-industry cooperation as a process, the model in this study is based on two factors: the “promoter of university-industry relations” (PUIR) and a technological system that is able to match the research supply of universities with the demand for innovation of the firms. A total of 375 firms, 420 research groups and 18 experts in knowledge transfer from Spain, Portugal and France have been involved in this study. Findings This study provides the first evidences of the relation between the number of matches’ demand-supply of research, the number of university-firm relations and the willingness to cooperate; all of these presented in the knowledge transfer model. Results also reinforce the utility of the role of PUIR and the matching system in the open innovation process. Research limitations/implications However, more evidences are necessary to get a complete validation of the model. In the future, the continuous utilization of the matching system by the PUIRs of the selected regions will allow the authors to evaluate how well the system is working by analysing the possible increases in formal collaboration university-firm in the area of R&D. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature through aligning the open innovation and intellectual capital theories in the specific and complex context of university-firm collaboration. Also, little research regarding this topic has been noticed in SUDOE European Union (EU) countries (SUDOE is an EU territorial cooperation programme that supports regional development by funding transnational projects).

Internationalization as process of value distribution through innovation: polyhedral diagnosis of a “born global” firm

Technology applied to learning is blurring the traditional outlines of the relations between publishing and technology industries, moving the internationalization strategy away from a gradual perspective toward accelerated internationalization. This paper aims to provide a conceptual model of polyhedral diagnosis of market entry strategy (PODMES model) for “born global” firms involved in e-learning industries.,The use of the case study methodology allowed apply PODMES model to a “born global” firm of the e-learning industry.,Results confirm that “born global” firms in the e-learning industry can adopt behaviors contrary to those expected in the literature. These behaviors imply new entry patterns by creating new strategic partner–supplier–client–competitor relations that extend the traditional analysis of the internal value chain to a process of value distribution through product and technology alliances.,This research provides two main contributions. First, an advance upon previous research into “born global” firms, through deep analysis of a case study that offers new findings regarding the phenomenon studied. It permits to align this research with previous analysis, following a strict case study methodology approach. Second, this study offers the application of a new methodology (PODMES model) that integrates the most relevant theories of internationalization (factorial dodecagon) within the five contingencies of entry market and the design of a strategic profile of internationalization.

Stimulating creative entrepreneurial initiatives: a flow diagram for strategic planning

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the organisational study of the creativity applied to business innovation through the analysis of three propositions: (1) there are substantial differences between Creative Entrepreneurial Initiatives (CEIs) and non-CEIs, with regard to human capital factors, structural capital factors, intellectual property, and creative value chain; (2) there are institutional, financial, and educational barriers that limit the creation of CEIs in South Europe (Portugal, France, and Spain); and (3) the adaptation of organisational measures of stimulus to the specificity of CEIs through a flow diagram can reduce the limiting effect of the barriers detected by CEIs. From this approach, researchers and policy-makers can obtain a better understanding of the specificities of the CIEs from a sectoral, strategic, and organisational focus.

Opportunities for Managing Human Capital in University Spin-offs. A Dynamic Analysis

Creating university spin-offs (USOs) should be one of the cornerstones of a country’s business development. Yet a number of studies have identified two factors that limit their growth: access to funding difficulties and a lack of management skills among entrepreneurial teams. In order to identify potential solutions for the latter of those factors, an analysis was performed to determine how the implementation of certain human resources policies affects the creation and retention of human capital in USOs. If successfully implemented, such policies can contribute to a more efficient management of the market value of such organisations. So, after diagnosing what the human capital component of Spanish USOs is considered to be, a causal analysis was performed. The approach taken to the analysis was that acquiring and retaining human capital is a strategic problem for such organisations. The outcome of the analysis is a series of policy proposals that, taking account of the differential characteristics of USOs, aim to foster the recruitment, development and retention of human capital as the basis of such organisations’ business competitiveness.ResumenLa creación de spin-offs universitarias debería constituir uno de los pilares sobre los que sustentar el desarrollo del tejido empresarial de un país. Sin embargo, de los análisis realizados se desprenden dos factores que limitan su crecimiento: las dificultades de acceso a fuentes de financiación y la falta de habilidades de gestión del equipo emprendedor. Para poder contribuir a solucionar la segunda de las dificultades detectadas, se ha realizado un análisis destinado a explicar cómo la implantación de determinadas políticas de recursos humanos puede afectar a la creación y mantenimiento del capital humano en las spin-offs universitarias, y con ello contribuir a una gestión más eficiente de su valor en el mercado. A partir del diagnóstico de cuál es la consideración del capital humano en las spin-offs españolas, se ha desarrollado un análisis causal que plantea la adquisición y mantenimiento del capital humano como un dilema estratégico para este tipo de organizaciones. Del análisis realizado se han derivado una serie de políticas propuestas que, teniendo en cuenta las características diferenciales de las spin-offs universitarias, están encaminadas a favorecer la captación, el desarrollo y retención de su capital humano como base de su competitividad empresarial