University spin-off firms in sustainable energy in five countries: what determines their reaching of the market?

University spin-off firms in sustainable energy in five countries: what determines their reaching of the market?

Nejabat, R. (TU Delft Economics of Technology and Innovation)
van Geenhuizen, M.S. (TU Delft Economics of Technology and Innovation)

2016

It is widely acknowledged that the transition towards a more sustainable energy productionand use needs to be accelerated. Whether young high-tech ventures can contribute to such anacceleration is a matter of debate. To contribute to this debate, this article aims to clarify theconditions under which a specific type of young high-tech ventures, university spin-off firms,bring inventions in sustainable energy to market in a quickly manner. The study draws on aselected sample of spin-offs (37) and four case-studies in Northwest Europe, and appliesrough-set analysis to explore the influence of different sets of conditions. We observe that thefollowing conditions provide the highest chance for a quick development, namely, located inan ‘Innovation Leader’ country and involved in multiple networks. Next important is acombination of practical orientation (founders) and access to substantial investment capital.In addition, we observe that time may be critically important, for example, in a quickfinancing of a global sales organization and in pay-back time after substantial investment.

university spin-off firms
sustainable energy innovation
entrepreneurial orientation
market introduction
time

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:08ced09b-2565-403d-9638-e1bee3380e26

ERSA

Proceedings of the 56th European Regional Science Conference

56th European Regional Science Conference, 2016-08-23 → 2016-08-26, Vienna, Austria

Institutional Repository

conference paper

© 2016 R. Nejabat, M.S. van Geenhuizen