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Commercialising Academic Research Results: Entrepreneurial Spirit, Training and Support.

Published in:   The Nordic Conference on Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development and Management in the New Millennium. 11th Nordic Conference on Small Business Research, The Århus School of Business, Århus, Denmark, June 18-20, 2000. Pages 143-151.
Publisher   The Århus School of Business, Århus, Denmark
Author   Liisa Hyvärinen

Abstract
Commercialisation of university researcher's ideas and findings and entrepreneurial training and support to the researchers are examined in this paper. Multi-sided phenomenon is approached first through theories and earlier literature, second by examining the structures of entrepreneurial training employed in other universities, and third viewing the case university through empirical material.
There are two aims, first finding some ‘best practices' and new ideas to be adopted for further development of entrepreneurial training / education and second gathering the scattered knowledge on university-based entrepreneurship and its background at the case university.
Interviews of 36 academic researchers and persons from the supporting organisations form the principal data. They emphasise attitudes towards entrepreneurship as important background factors to entrepreneurial activities, and researchers need for help and support in commercialisation. Answers of university students encourage formation of entrepreneurial teams in the future because they wish for co-operation with other faculty members in idea commercialisation process.
Entrepreneurial training programmes of five universities compared here are alike. All consist of workshops for further and wider education and informative purposes, and of preparing individual business plans, networking, mentoring and supervising of the starting enterprises. Financial support and incubating services are offered to them with the help of technology centres and risk investors. The same model will be adopted at the case university. Attempts towards general approval of entrepreneurship is not mentioned in the compared programme.

Number of pages   Pages 143-151 (9 pages)

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