This class exists in these courses :
• IÉSEG > IESEG Degree - Programme Grande École > Semester 1 > 2,00 ECTS
• IÉSEG > IESEG Degree - Programme Grande École > Semester 2 > 2,00 ECTS

Prerequisites

No specific prerequisites are necessary for being able to attend this course. The willingness to be "active" participants through contributing to discussion during lessons and to work in group will be welcome.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student should be able to :
1) understand and know the framework of a start-up firm, a research spin-off firm and, more generally, of small and medium businesses (SMEs):
a) have learned some basic notions about technological entrepreneurship and start-up/research spin-off definition, main characteristics, problems and needs;
b) understand the actual institutional and technological environment, the role and the key characteristics of science parks, incubators, venture capitalists, business angels etc.;
c) define what is an industrial partnership, an industrial district/cluster and a business ecosystem as well as their characteristics; define the difference between formal and informal entrepreneurship networks;
2) develop and implement an economic and strategic analysis thanks to the exercise of:
a) the business model analysis of a science park or incubator (located in Europe) through the investigation of its Internet website and some grey and scientific literature about it;
b) a SWOT analysis building (starting from the analysis of the chosen science park-incubator);
3) act in the actual constantly moving economic environment (influenced by the Internet and ICTs):
a) be able to critically discuss and think over the consequences of the Internet and ICT revolution on the actual context of entrepreneurship&SMEs: virtual proximity, use of tools like e-mails and Skype are changing the way to do business and the relationships among the different actors involved, etc.;
b) be a member/founder of a start-up or be involved in an industrial project.

Course description

1) Research spin-offs and start-up firms: definitions, main characteristics, problems and needs;
2) The importance of structures linked to the territory: the relationship among research spin-offs, universities, start-ups, science parks and incubators;
3) How to choose the case-study and how to write the report (index, introduction, theoretical framework, case-study analysis; discussion and conclusions, references). Some basic concepts about business models, SWOT analysis, comparative analysis, will be provided;
4) Industrial partnerships, alliances, business ecosystems: their role and utility for research spin-off/start-up;
5) Science parks, innovation clusters, industrial districts, physical and virtual agglomeration phenomena, various forms of proximity: presentation of these concepts and active discussion with the students;
6) Formal and informal networks: their role for European SMEs. The case of French and Italian SMEs dealing in Brazil;
7) Discussion and policy suggestions about the actual role and relationships among science parks/incubators and research spin-offs/start-ups. Some reflections on networks, traditional industrial partnerships and the emerging importance of business ecosystems following the Internet and ICT revolution
8) Presentation of the various case-studies by the different students and general discussion.

Class type

Class structure

Teaching methods

• Interactive class
• Presentation
• Project work
• Research
• Tutorial

Assessment

- Student active participation during all the course lectures (regular class attendance and punctuality, useful contributing to discussion, interest and attention)
- Individual and/or short group case-study research (write a brief complete report of the case-study + official presentation of about 20 minutes with some powerpoint slides + open discussion of all the students).

Recommended reading

• Salvador E. (2011) “Are science parks and incubators good "brand names" for spin-offs? The case study of Turin”, Journal of Technology Transfer, vol. 36 (2): 203-232 -

• Benghozi P.-J., Salvador E. (2014) “Are traditional industrial partnerships so strategic for research spinoff development? Some evidence from the Italian case”, Entrepreneurship&Regional Development: an International Journal, vol. 26 (1-2): 47-79 -

• Salvador E., Mariotti I., Conicella F. (2013) “Science Park or Innovation Cluster? Similarities and differences in physical and virtual firms’ agglomeration phenomena”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour&Research, vol. 19, n. 6, pp. 656-67 -

• Salvador E., Pinot de Villechenon F., Lopez-Rizzo H. (2014) “European SMEs and the Brazilian market: the key role of social networks”, European Business Review, vol. 26, n. 4, forthcoming -

Internet resources

• IESEG Online

  I will use the School Intranet site to put on-line documents only in the case the students will not be able to find the documents needed for attending the course and for analysing the case-study. I prefer to give priority to the capacity of students to search on the Internet and find scientific and grey literature by themselves.