Becoming an Entrepreneur for a Trial Period: The Pre-Incubation Experience

Abstract

In most member states of the European Union a major failing of the innovation system is that inventions generated at universities and other higher education institutes are too rarely commercialized by the creation of new, innovative firms. One reason for this can be found in the accumulation of obstacles that prevent academic researchers with a technology-based business idea from setting up their own company. Such obstacles include a lack of knowledge in business management and negotiation skills, the unknown market potential of products and services, high financial risks and the widespread fear of failure. In this article a new and innovative support scheme is described, based on the concept of ‘pre-incubation’ and set up by the Institute for Innovation Transfer at the University of Bielefeld. The core of the concept is a university-associated facility, the pre-incubator, which is a new device for managing the spin-off process. The innovative feature of the pre-incubator is a specific management, legal and insurance structure that allows academic researchers to test the feasibility of their business ideas before they take the risk of setting up a company. The legal entity of the pre-incubator forms an umbrella under which potential entrepreneurs, guided and controlled by the management staff, can test their products on the market, thus gaining valuable business experience. This experience, in addition to continuous training and coaching, is expected to increase the sustainability of the future company. In addition the article outlines how the concept of pre-incubation is currently implemented at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia in Spain and the Ecole Polytechnique in France within the framework of the EC-funded innovation project USINE (University Start-up of International Entrepreneurs). An analysis from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, which monitors the transfer process of the pre-incubation scheme within the project, concludes the article by identifying the features of the pre-incubator that set it apart from other tried and tested mechanisms. The adaptability of the model to different national contexts is also discussed, as are the benefits and costs to stakeholders and the ways in which they can measure ‘success’.