Wadid Lamine

Building sustainable regional platforms for incubating science and technology businesses : evidence from US and French science and technology parks

The authors explore the role played by science and technology parks (STPs) as regional platforms for incubating science- and technology-based businesses. Using multiple case studies of the more established US and French STP facilities, they provide an analysis of the contributions made by STPs as regional drivers of innovative entrepreneurship. The paper concludes that successful STPs can act as platforms for incubating science and technology businesses. If modern STPs are to emerge as sustainable platforms of incubation, their business models must be responsive to changing contextual needs through the pursuit of realistic goals, providing high-quality value-added services, employing professionally competent management and maintaining financial strength.

How do social skills enable nascent entrepreneurs to enact perseverance strategies in the face of challenges? A comparative case study of success and failure

Purpose – This paper seeks to advance ongoing research in entrepreneurial perseverance. While the concept of perseverance is not new, few researchers paid attention to behavioural persistence in the entrepreneurial context. The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of new technology based firms (NTBF) by focusing on the role of nascent entrepreneurs’ social skills in the meeting the changes of entrepreneurial perseverance. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper the authors study the start-up phase of entrepreneurial process. The authors opted for a longitudinal case study approach in order to enhance the knowledge on entrepreneurs’ social skills and perseverance. For triangulation purpose the data were gathered using four different information sources. The use of Nvivo8 as the data analysis tool helped to impose a discipline and structure which facilitated the extraction of core insights. Findings – This paper contributes to the understanding of the entrepreneurial perseverance in the con...

One step beyond? Towards a process view of social networks in entrepreneurship

A critical challenge for entrepreneurship scholars is the need to develop a greater understanding of (1) how, when and why entrepreneurial networks emerge, develop and change over time and (2) how network evolution impacts on the entrepreneurial trajectory. This special issue of Entrepreneurship & Regional Development begins to address these challenges by presenting a range of current works that further increase our understanding about social network dynamics during the entrepreneurial process. We begin by connecting this special issue to some of the main challenges of the field of entrepreneurship. From this, we propose an integrative perspective required to move thinking forward. We then summarize how the diverse papers presented in this special issue contribute to opening up the research field further and help us develop a greater understanding about the challenges entrepreneurship scholars face. We conclude this article with lessons and suggestions for future research.

Boosting new venture projects through incubator development programme

This article adopts a resource-based view to help understand why some of the incubators are more successful than others in supporting the development of new science and technology-based firms (NSTBFs). We provide this evidence using an original longitudinal data set collected from a decade-old public incubator programme funded after the passage of the 1999 French law on innovation and research.

A transaction-based approach to social innovation:

This article aims to provide a transaction-based approach to social innovation based on the three modes of transaction coordination and governance as identified by Powell. We produce a grid that explains how social innovation can be implemented in the market, in hierarchies or in networks. This work makes a number of theoretical contributions. First, it provides an integrative framework of social innovation that is firmly rooted in organization theory. Second, we introduce two new concepts: social entrepreneurship orientation and the social innovation ecosystem, believing that these concepts can contribute to a better understanding of the field of social innovation in the context of sustainable development.

The Entrepreneurial University and the Region : what role for Entrepreneurship Departments?

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the concept of the entrepreneurial university by examining roles of academic entrepreneurship departments in driving regional economic development outcomes. While a wealth of research investigates the role, activities and function of the entrepreneurial university, very little which focuses specifically on academic entrepreneurship departments, where much of the research, teaching and knowledge exchange concerning entrepreneurship takes place. Two case studies of large and active entrepreneurship departments are presented to illustrate the different roles and activities they undertake in the sphere of economic development in their regions or locales. A dual model of engagement is proposed, whereby the entrepreneurship department operates within the framework of the entrepreneurial university, but also as a regional actor in its own right.