How University Spin-offs Develop Opportunities: An exploratory study in how university spin-offs find, identify, and recognize opportunities
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2022
Författare
Lindbom, Emil
Jonsson, Linus
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
In recent years universities have seen a push to commercialise its academic advance-
ment, pursuing a so called ’third mission’. This has led to an increase in university
affiliated spin-offs companies trying to exploit academic research for monetary and
societal benefits. The process of how opportunities emerge and are captured by
entrepreneurs have been examined thoroughly in literature. However, within a uni-
versity context and its unique environment the phenomena have not been studied
in detail. Thus, this thesis adds to the literature by thoroughly examining how the
process of opportunity recognition develop within university spin-offs. The study
was conducted at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, where 11 uni-
versity spin-offs, which all had recognized an opportunity, were interviewed about
their journey of finding and recognizing opportunities. The study found that the
general literature on opportunity recognition can adequately explain most of the
phenomenon observed within the unique context of University Spin-offs. However,
the study highlights new factors that indicate to having an impact on opportunity
recognition process. Using entrepreneurial students as surrogate entrepreneurs was
common and was deemed effective in order to survive the long process of recognizing
an opportunity. Furthermore, soft money seems critical to provide enough runway
to stay afloat up until an opportunity has been recognized.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
University Spin-Offs , Opportunities , Entrepreneurship , Opportunity Recognition