How Can We Reap the Fruits of Academic Research in Biotechnology? in Search of Critical Success Factors in Policies for New-Firm Formation

Marina van Geenhuizen
Additional contact information
Marina van Geenhuizen: Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5015, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands

Environment and Planning C, 2003, vol. 21, issue 1, 139-155

Abstract: There is often a gap between the creation of knowledge and the use of new knowledge in the economy, a situation which has pushed many governments to establish programmes for knowledge transfer and new-firm formation. I examine the initiatives taken by the government in the Netherlands to advance new-firm formation in biotechnology. Drawing on experience in entrepreneurship—its institutional setting in general, and more specifically on developments in biotechnology start-ups—I aim to identify critical success factors for this policy. The policy seems promising in covering all development stages of start-up firms and in using a network approach—with implementation by an intermediary organisation as a solution for coordination problems. The low popularity of entrepreneurship, including some negative regulatory factors in biotechnology, and the danger of the policy focusing on the top innovative start-ups are threats to success. Other threats may be a fragmentation of ferees and a narrow focus on a national situation rather than cooperation with adjacent countries. I suggest a number of critical success factors that can be used in policies to enhance new-firm formation in biotechnology, and indicate some lines for further research.

Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c0133 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:21:y:2003:i:1:p:139-155

DOI: 10.1068/c0133

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning C
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().