Towards HEI-Based New Venture Generation

Abstract

This paper concerns a business development and support initiative – the Business Laboratory (BL) of the University of Kuopio, Finland. The project is designed to foster the emergence of university-based new ventures. The goal of the BL is to develop ‘incubator-ready’ science-based firms. The BL also supports management team development, encourages the production of cases and generates positive role models. Most entrepreneurship programmes focus on new firms, excluding the establishment of new businesses in large corporations. Particular emphasis is given to the planning and building of an infrastructure and the development of a favourable environment for new ventures. Many programmes offer assistance in matters relating to intellectual property, business planning, training, etc. They focus on the entrepreneurial process after the proposal stage, thus ignoring the stages at which inventions are generated or scientific results converted into embryonic business ideas and innovations. Consequently, the actual spin-off mechanism within a university can be neglected. The BL, by contrast, seeks to influence the critical phases and events in the emergence process, going back to an earlier stage than that at which people normally begin to observe and identify entrepreneurial action.