PICO l Academic entrepreneurship, from knowledge creation to knowledge diffusion

P I C O
From Knowledge Creation to Knowledge Diffusion

Dissemination

Results relevant for practitioners


Events	Reports
Forthcoming events	Policy reports
-	Reports for companies

Past events

In May 2009, the teams organized a focus group with policy makers and practitioners, in which the policy-relevant results of the project were presented and discussed.

Presentation and agenda of the focus group

Forthcoming events

The final conference of the PICO project will take place on the 23rd of June 2009 in Paris.

Presentation of the final conference

The PICO project focuses on Research-Based Spin-Offs (RBSOs), e.g. firms that are created around scientific knowledge generated in universities and public research organizations. The goal of the project is to understand the conditions under which RBSOs effectively contribute to the generation of new knowledge, technologies, products, services and processes and its dissemination in the ecology in which they are embedded.

Over the past 15 years, various initiatives have been taken in Europe to foster the creation of Research-Based Spin-Off firms. The policy discourses have followed the same rationale where RBSOs are perceived as source of growth, of job creation, of regeneration of the industrial base, of the development of the competitiveness of regions, countries, Europe... But after 15 years of experience, the results are disappointing : the European RBSOs do not grow, they stay small firms (with 5 to 7 employees, 7 years after start-up) ; few are able to raise VC at start-up or to get a subsequent increase in capital after start-up ; very few have a successful IPO.

The PICO project has tried to bring a better understanding:
- of the diversity and of the different commercialisation strategy of the RBSOs,
- of the link between their entrepreneurial strategy and their growth,
- of the role they play in their ecology.

The four sessions of the workshop will address theses following issues:

1) RBSOs are heterogeneous companies in their knowledge production and transformation function. Session 1 will try to understand what factors lead to this heterogeneity in the performance of RBSO and what the influence of (technology) commercialisation strategy is.

2) One of the key weaknesses of EU countries lies in their limited ability to create a sufficient number of gazelles. Session 2 will examine the relationship between the entrepreneurial strategy of RBSOs and their growth.

3) The literature has examined what incumbent firms can bring to RBSOs. Session 3 will focus on the reverse question: what do RBSOs bring to their partners?

4) Some RBSOs make an exit through a trade sale. Session 4 will try to understand what they bring to their acquiring firm.

In other words, sessions 3 and 4 are going to ask the question of the role that RBSOs play in their ecology and thus investigate whether we can identify an alternative model to the gazelle or google-type companies.

Agenda of the final conference

Map

Contact person: Philippe Mustar