Simon Mosey

From Human Capital to Social Capital: A Longitudinal Study of Technology-Based Academic Entrepreneurs

This article develops theory relating to how differences in the human capital of academic entrepreneurs influence their ability to develop social capital that can address the barriers to venture development. We examine the development of social capital by three types of academic entrepreneurs with differing levels of entrepreneurship experience: nascent, novice, and habitual entrepreneurs. Using a longitudinal study, critical differences are observed between the structure, content, and governance of their social networks. We propose that entrepreneurs with prior business ownership experience have broader social networks and are more effective in developing network ties. Less experienced entrepreneurs likely encounter structural holes between their scientific research networks and industry networks. Support initiatives help attract industry partners for novice entrepreneurs from engineering and the material sciences but academics based within biological sciences encounter greater difficulties building such ties. Regardless of academic discipline, business ownership experience appears essential to learn to build relationships with experienced managers and potential equity investors.

Understanding new‐to‐market product development in SMEs

– This study aims to understand how small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) can build a dynamic capability for new‐to‐market product development., – Five innovative and ambitious case firms were selected and studied longitudinally over the course of five years., – Within this group distinct development processes are identified that enable them to satisfy the unmet needs of new customers using their current technologies. However to sustain this activity managers need to empower cross‐functional teams to evaluate new technologies with an ever‐increasing number of pioneering partners. An ideal sequence is proposed for them to achieve this by systematising learning between projects and thereby reconfiguring their development processes to meet the changing needs of the market., – This method appears most suited to SMEs able to develop new‐to‐market products in conjunction with technologically discerning customers and suppliers. As such it may be less applicable outside the observed business‐to‐business markets., – The five cases studied aptly illustrate the interplay of certain paths, positions and processes in terms of how they relate to new‐to‐market product development performance. The implication for researchers and managers is that consideration of all of these factors is necessary.

New product development in British SMEs

Reports the efforts of six British small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enhance their new product development (NPD) capabilities. Finds a strong recognition by managers of “the need for NPD” yet they consistently deprioritised work on NPD when faced with other shorter‐term pressures. The involvement of manufacturing managers was limited in their firms’ NPD activities. What involvement there was occurred late in the process. Identifies a major problem in terms of the lack of information available, with only a few of the firms recording the activities undertaken in the NPD process. This has a number of serious consequences; it was difficult to compare their performance with other firms and they did not have the information needed to improve systematically their systems and procedures. In those firms that did maintain records, their record keeping was limited. Much of what was recorded had little value, as it was not used systematically to improve performance. This shortage of suitable information also hindered the ability of management to learn and thus improve future generations of new products.

Innovation decision making in British manufacturing SMEs

Reports the product innovation activities of 30 British manufacturing SMEs, all with aggressive growth ambitions. Shows that ten of these companies meet their aims by repeatedly introducing innovative new products that open up new market niches, which they successfully exploit. This is seen to contrast with the remaining, larger group that performs less well by introducing incremental improvement products into their current markets only. A longitudinal study identifies managerial approaches typical to the more successful group. These include a multi‐functional approach to decision making and the use of market and competitor analysis in strategic product planning. This is supported by effective cross company communication of decisions and plans. Concludes that this combination of approaches offers ambitious small firms a potentially powerful competitive advantage over their larger rivals.

Creating network bridges for university technology transfer: The medici fellowship programme

Abstract This paper evaluates a fellowship scheme aiming to overcome attitudinal and operational barriers towards university technology transfer. We propose barriers exist because of the focus of many academics exclusively within a peer review research network. We explore the case of the Medici Fellowship programme that was implemented in biomedical departments across five universities located in the midlands of England. Our evidence suggests that such fellowship programmes, through the retraining of academics, may have a positive impact on the commercialisation of research. In particular, the fellows, through the enhancement of their social and human capital, are able to act as agents of attitudinal change in their host departments and are seen to build bridges into external business networks that can provide early stage funding, market and legal information and help identify potential customers for nascent academic entrepreneurs.

The transformation of network ties to develop entrepreneurial competencies for university spin-offs

Social networks are integral to the emergence and development of new ventures, but the temporal utility of networks is poorly understood. We consider the initial development of four university spin-offs and examine the formation and development of network ties to construct valuable entrepreneurial competencies. We develop a conceptual framework that explains how strong and weak network ties are strategically transformed in terms of strength and purpose depending on the type of competency sought and the business development need. We conclude that theoretical explanations of the new venture formation process need to incorporate not only network formation but also the role of network tie transformations.

Strategic entrepreneurship, resource orchestration and growing spin-offs from universities

By combining the strategic entrepreneurship perspective and resource orchestration theory we provide an integrated framework that explains the heterogeneity of growth across different types of university spin-offs (USOs). We show that appropriate resource accumulation, the bundling of resources to build competencies and the leveraging of those competencies into the market are all necessary but they also need to be synchronised with an appropriate growth strategy to realise sustainable growth. We discuss the differential resource needs at different stages of growth as USOs attempt to overcome critical junctures of entrepreneurial commitment and venture credibility. We explain the difficulties of accumulating an appropriate breadth of resources and competencies as they are contingent upon whether the USO should be aiming to sell their technology outright or whether they should be developing a product for a specific market opportunity. We conclude by proposing that universities and technology transfer offices should synchronise the depth of their organisational support to meet the growth contingencies of the USO.

Academic entrepreneurship and economic competitiveness: rethinking the role of the entrepreneur

There has been an increase in research activity focused on the contribution of university spin-offs to economic competitiveness, yet the majority of the studies have considered the economic performance of universities or spin-offs in isolation. Such studies have cast some doubt on the extent to which spin-offs have generated expected performance benefits in terms of economic impact and have critiqued the role and capabilities of technology transfer offices in adding value to spin-off ventures. With a few exceptions, studies of academic entrepreneurship have tended to omit consideration of the role of the entrepreneur, and thereby neglected any economic contribution outside of spin-off venture creation. We propose that to better understand the economic impact of academic entrepreneurship, there is a need to explicitly recognize the academic entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial behavior across different contexts. First, we suggest that academic entrepreneurship can occur in a wider range of contexts than previously examined, necessitating a consideration of the mobility of academic entrepreneurs back and forth between academic and commercial settings. Second, there is a need to better understand the microfoundations, that is, the behavioral and cognitive processes associated with academic entrepreneurs, as they create and develop enterprises within academe or industry. Third, there is a need to examine the heterogeneity of all universities involved in academic entrepreneurship, specifically looking outside the atypical group of leading research universities and considering the significant variance in entrepreneurial culture between schools within specific universities. Fourth, we propose that the nature of policy toward knowledge transfer and academic entrepreneurship needs to be sensitive to the individual and the context. We argue that policy can have unintended consequences upon the entrepreneurial behavior of individuals due to the significant moderating effect of the entrepreneurial legacy of different contexts. Implications for policy and further research are discussed.

The influence of human and social capital upon the entrepreneurial intentions and destinations of academics

The development of entrepreneurial intentions by academics remains a relatively unexplored area. This study investigates the transition from intentions to career destinations in a group of early career bioscientists following their participation in a business plan competition. Despite a significant proportion of academics stating entrepreneurial intentions, very few were seen to subsequently create new ventures. Through a longitudinal analysis distinct patterns of changing aspirations are observed as academics attempt to develop ventures within academe or leave to pursue industrial careers. Propositions are developed explaining how the use of social capital influences changing ambitions and destinations. We observe that weak ties are used to reveal the specific skills needed to realise entrepreneurial intentions. By contrast, strong ties are used to either reinforce entrepreneurial intentions or change career aspirations altogether.

University technology transfer: network bridge promotion by the Medici Fellowship Scheme

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the Medici Fellowship Scheme addressed attitudinal and resource barriers to the commercialisation of knowledge within five research‐intensive universities. The following research questions were explored: Did the Medici fellows change the attitudes of academic network members in host departments towards the commercialisation of research? Did the Medici Fellowship Scheme encourage fellows to accumulate human and social capital? Did the Medici Fellowship Scheme encourage fellows to leverage their academic and practitioner networks?Design/methodology/approach – The scheme was implemented in Biomedical departments across five universities located in the Midlands in England. Six months after the completion of the scheme information was consistently gathered from six Medici fellows, six technology transfer officers (TTOs) and six senior academics. Face‐to‐face interviews were conducted. Information was gathered through structured and semi‐structured open‐...