Queste pagine trattano dell'espansione internazionale di un'impresa familiare svi... more Queste pagine trattano dell'espansione internazionale di un'impresa familiare svizzera, quella dei Legler. Originaria di Glarus, in un cantone protestante di lingua tedesca, la famiglia Legler gestiva nel villaggio di Diesbach un'attività di filatura del cotone sin dal 1730. Quasi un secolo e mezzo dopo l'azienda di famiglia giunse a un punto di svolta. Costretto dai limiti delle poche risorse locali, dalla carenza di manodopera e desideroso di rivolgersi a un mercato più ampio, Mathias II Legler-il successore del fondatore e suo omonimo-guardò al mercato italiano, recentemente unificato, come a una interessante opportunità per uno sviluppo oltre confine. Così, nel 1875 Mathias II fondò la J. M. Legler filatura e tessitura a Ponte San Pietro, vicino a Bergamo 1 , un'azienda tessile destinata a divenire nel tempo tra i protagonisti della nascente moda italiana, con importanti collaborazioni con sartorie e case di moda affermatesi a livello internazionale, come Fabiani, Enzo, Emilio Pucci, Givenchy, Pierre Cardin…, solo per citarne alcune. L'obiettivo di questo contributo è quello di offrire una spiegazione concettuale dei processi di decision making internazionali nel contesto delle piccole medie imprese a conduzione familiare. L'analisi storica dell'espansione internazionale dell'azienda Legler dalla Svizzera all'Italia ha lo scopo di trovare una risposta alla domanda se il processo decisionale e di internazionalizzazione delle piccole-medie imprese a conduzione familiare differisca da quello delle grandi imprese.
This paper deals with the role of the State Owned enterprises (SOEs) in innovation processes. Onl... more This paper deals with the role of the State Owned enterprises (SOEs) in innovation processes. Only a few studies focus on the contribution SOEs as companies might give to produce new knowledge and technological innovation. We argue, however, that SOEs are a pillar of the innovation process and we explore conditions that can make SOEs very effective. Through two indepth case studies in two different industries (STMicroelectronics in the semiconductor and Thales Alenia Space in the space industry) we illustrate how SOEs can contribute to innovation by exploring new opportunities and recombining different sources of knowledge. We highlight the conditions that can make exploration and recombination possible. We also highlight the ability of the two companies to change their boundaries through a continuous wave of agreements, mergers and acquisitions. This way, they were able to expand beyond their domains in a way that matched the evolution of their original industries.
The author aims to link lead-user theory and its idea-generation function to the policy of public... more The author aims to link lead-user theory and its idea-generation function to the policy of public demand of innovation designed by agencies at government level. The discussion of the literature argues that the expertise of government agencies can help companies in market foresight, technological opportunities and product innovation
The chapter presents the process of decision-making and the practice of international expansion o... more The chapter presents the process of decision-making and the practice of international expansion of a family business in the nineteenth century. The Swiss family business Legler moved to the area near Bergamo, Italy, in 1875, and expanded its operation over multiple generations. This chapter explores the cognitive dimension of the internationalisation process, how culture and family ties are used to understand risk and opportunities, and how a family business interprets push and pull factors under the lens of cultural self-representation and meaning creation. The historical analysis shows the importance of economic, cultural, and family-driven factors in the process of decision-making and in the practice of going abroad and making internationalisation successful and long-lasting.
There is a paucity of studies which have analysed the role of internal processes for academic spi... more There is a paucity of studies which have analysed the role of internal processes for academic spinoffs in a systematic way. We focus on a specific nuance of internal processes which relate to the management practices that universities can put in place to influence the growth of academic spinoffs. Building upon recent literature on the empirical economics of management, we investigate whether and how different forms of management practices contribute to the growth of academic spin-offs. We collect survey data on universities' management practices by focusing on technology transfer offices, as well as drawing on a longitudinal sample of 790 Italian university spin-offs founded by 42 different Italian universities, which were observed over the period of 2006 to 2014. Our findings show that management practices help to explain the growth of academic spin-offs, although their effect varies across management practices. Supporting operations in the form of patenting and training as well as the existence of incentives are found to have a positive association with spinoff growth. A negative association is instead found for target setting (spinoff growth targets) and hiring of external management with private sector experience. We provide an explanation of these results by pointing to a combination of adverse selection, short-termism and weak enforceability by universities. Drawing on our results, the adoption of management practices by university managers and policy makers should be carefully considered, as they might have unintended consequences on the growth of academic spin-offs.
The author aims to link lead-user theory and its idea-generation function to the policy of public... more The author aims to link lead-user theory and its idea-generation function to the policy of public demand of innovation designed by agencies at government level. The discussion of the literature argues that the expertise of government agencies can help companies in market foresight, technological opportunities and product innovation
Creativity in the firms is limited by uncertainty in the future market demand. An innovation-inte... more Creativity in the firms is limited by uncertainty in the future market demand. An innovation-intermediary has the ability to share creative ideas between firms and markets. In the context of public-demand policies, the supply side might benefit from the idea-generator effect of a public-buyer with lead-user characteristics. A specialized agency is then an intermediary with expertise able to design public procurement to fit innovation sources in the market with technological knowledge in the firms. Propositions are drawn from the literature to build a theory of the expert public-buyer. Then, the case-study of the design of the satellite telecommunication in Italy is used to describe the phenomenon and provides insight for further empirical research. Evidences illustrate the potential benefit of expert-buyer in the contest of demand-driven innovation policies to create capabilities in complex technological domain and to convert latent needs to clear market demand.
This paper presents a proximal study of energy transition in a large state-owned enterprise. Orga... more This paper presents a proximal study of energy transition in a large state-owned enterprise. Organizational change is the prerequisite for energy transition in a company that has historically understood its own identity in the remunerative oil gas industry. The methodology of the research is a qualitative on-field study of the implementation of the transition strategy inside the company. For this purpose, the research uses primarily first-hand reports collected within the organization in the years 2018–2020. The paper explores the dynamic process of change to reveal the tensions, conflicting identities, and strategies of implementation needed to start the energy transition, shedding light on the formation of a new corporate identity that traces back to the entrepreneurial inception of the company. The role of communication between the different levels of the company was crucial. The management found in the corporate history a moderator of organizational change that led to a renewed ...
In this chapter, we propose an exploratory analysis of the Chinese acquisition of foreigner compa... more In this chapter, we propose an exploratory analysis of the Chinese acquisition of foreigner companies by state-owned enterprises during the last ten years (2008–2017). Cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) carried out by Chinese companies have shown strong growth, and have gradually emerged as the dominant vehicle for Chinese outward investment. Our aim is to understand the main dynamics underling the phenomenon of Chinese state-owned enterprises acquisitions in advanced countries. For this purpose, in our analysis we target only mergers and acquisition of companies in western countries in the last ten years. Our data collection returned a sample of around 150 cases. We use both quantitative and qualitative data to get insights about the main patterns of acquisition, industry choice, and country location. Moreover, we try to fill the gap related to the understanding of the rationalities for such strategic-asset-seeking M&A. Our conclusion contributes to the literature on international M&A and supports the business-oriented strategy of state-owned enterprises in dealing with cross border acquisitions.
The paper provides insights about the activities carried out by alumni organizations and understa... more The paper provides insights about the activities carried out by alumni organizations and understand how they can play a role in the current evolution of entrepreneurial universities. We explore the...
International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2016
This paper presents a comparative analysis of university-level support practices and entrepreneur... more This paper presents a comparative analysis of university-level support practices and entrepreneurial behaviour of spin-offs from nine universities in Boston. We explore the prerequisite to venture in the university, the entrepreneurs' attitude throughout the first years of activity, and discuss differences in spin-offs' outcomes. The investigation explores 81 academic spin-offs active since 2013. We found that two alternative behaviours are suitable to provide the right support to academic spin-offs. In top-academic institutions the availability of services and incentives to facilitate patent rights ownership, university equities, and venture capital is more likely to be found, while in lower-ranked universities spin-offs mostly rely on incubators services to overcome capital limitations.
The subject of this article is the inheritance of the parent university of academic spin-offs thr... more The subject of this article is the inheritance of the parent university of academic spin-offs through imitation and entrepreneurial learning. Building on a capability perspective, the article adds to the literature on university spin-offs and presents insights into the academic spin-off phenomenon that may be useful in supporting academic entrepreneurship. The study is based on four universities, all located in the metropolitan area of Milan. The authors followed the start-up processes of 74 spin-off ventures over the period 2004-2013, obtaining economic data for 61 of the ventures. The analysis we carried out shows that parent universities influence the industry distribution of spin-offs, since most spin-offs showing a positive performance were concentrated in industries that (1) could benefit from the most advanced research of the parent university and (2) were those in which previous start-ups had also tended to concentrate. Thus, a focus on the parent (university)-progeny (spin-off) dyad as the unit of analysis reveals that the specific capabilities available and previous spin-off experience developed in the university play an important role in facilitating spin-off ventures and influencing new firms' behaviour in their start-up and development phases.
Nella proliferazione degli orientamenti epistemologici e delle tematiche, l’elemento costitutivo ... more Nella proliferazione degli orientamenti epistemologici e delle tematiche, l’elemento costitutivo della storia, intesa come disciplina scientifica, rimane il ricorso alle fonti originali (o primarie); su di esse poggia la pretesa veritativa della storiografia, che si contrappone all’uso sensazionalistico della storia o alle pressioni mediatiche ed editoriali che spingono in direzione contraria, verso un impiego sempre più veloce e opportunistico delle fonti derivate (o secondarie).Ma come ebbe a scrivere Carlo M. Cipolla, lo storico che si rifà solo alle fonti secondarie è in qualche modo simile «al chirurgo che ha letto solo libri di chirurgia e non si è mai avvicinato ad un tavolo operatorio né ha mai preso in mano un bisturi». Le fonti d’archivio costituiscono il contatto empirico dello storico con il passato e, insieme alla forma che assume la spiegazione storica, danno legittimità – se correttamente trattate – al realismo della disciplina. Tra queste, le fonti non indirizzate, vale a dire quelle non prodotte per informare consapevolmente i contemporanei e i posteri ma create per esigenze pratiche, hanno uno straordinario potenziale informativo; rappresentano infatti un elemento che può “dinamicamente” arricchire e/o correggere le ipotesi iniziali della ricerca. In questa direzione, oltre la loro pura archiviazione e conservazione, il trattamento informatico di fonti storiche seriali, reso sempre più a portata di mano dai progressi delle tecnologie digitali, costituisce un prodigioso strumento per il lavoro dello storico, sia sotto il profilo meramente conoscitivo che sotto quello più analitico. Gli esempi di valorizzazione delle fonti (sia primarie sia secondarie) in questo senso stanno diventando sempre più frequenti e online è possibile trovarne casi molto interessanti, realizzati da archivi e istituzioni sia pubblici che privati. Imberg.db, la banca dati sulle imprese bergamasche dall’Unità al 1978, che qui presentiamo, è costituita dalla trasposizione digitale – in database relazionale – delle informazioni desunte dalle tre anagrafi commerciali (che appartengono quindi alla categoria delle fonti primarie) esistenti per il periodo di riferimento. Quella che può essere considerata l’anagrafe economica digitale del territorio bergamasco dall’Unità alla fine degli anni Settanta (vale a dire fino all’anno, il 1978, in cui inizia il sistema di registrazione elettronico camerale), è stata progettata e realizzata, tra il 2002 e il 2008, dalla Fondazione Famiglia Legler (ora Fondazione Legler per la Storia economica e sociale di Bergamo) su incarico della Camera di Commercio di Bergamo, beneficiando di finanziamenti anche da parte della Fondazione Cariplo, della Provincia di Bergamo e di Regione Lombardia. Il database è liberamente interrogabile online, o presso la Fondazione, previa autorizzazione della Camera di Commercio di Bergamo, mentre un sample ne è visibile all’indirizzo web http://www.ffl.it/interroga.asp.
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity
A spin-out happens when an employee quits a company to start a new venture; however, theories do ... more A spin-out happens when an employee quits a company to start a new venture; however, theories do not agree on whether the ‘spin-out entrepreneur’ will start the company in the same or in a different industry. We investigated a sample of 250 entrepreneurs and 120 spin-out companies to understand what led an entrepreneur or a group of founders to enter a new industry. Our results contribute to theory, suggesting that spin-out entrepreneurs usually move to different and innovative industries owing to recombination of knowledge in founding teams. Our evidence supports the positive effect of different experiences within the team.
Queste pagine trattano dell'espansione internazionale di un'impresa familiare svi... more Queste pagine trattano dell'espansione internazionale di un'impresa familiare svizzera, quella dei Legler. Originaria di Glarus, in un cantone protestante di lingua tedesca, la famiglia Legler gestiva nel villaggio di Diesbach un'attività di filatura del cotone sin dal 1730. Quasi un secolo e mezzo dopo l'azienda di famiglia giunse a un punto di svolta. Costretto dai limiti delle poche risorse locali, dalla carenza di manodopera e desideroso di rivolgersi a un mercato più ampio, Mathias II Legler-il successore del fondatore e suo omonimo-guardò al mercato italiano, recentemente unificato, come a una interessante opportunità per uno sviluppo oltre confine. Così, nel 1875 Mathias II fondò la J. M. Legler filatura e tessitura a Ponte San Pietro, vicino a Bergamo 1 , un'azienda tessile destinata a divenire nel tempo tra i protagonisti della nascente moda italiana, con importanti collaborazioni con sartorie e case di moda affermatesi a livello internazionale, come Fabiani, Enzo, Emilio Pucci, Givenchy, Pierre Cardin…, solo per citarne alcune. L'obiettivo di questo contributo è quello di offrire una spiegazione concettuale dei processi di decision making internazionali nel contesto delle piccole medie imprese a conduzione familiare. L'analisi storica dell'espansione internazionale dell'azienda Legler dalla Svizzera all'Italia ha lo scopo di trovare una risposta alla domanda se il processo decisionale e di internazionalizzazione delle piccole-medie imprese a conduzione familiare differisca da quello delle grandi imprese.
This paper deals with the role of the State Owned enterprises (SOEs) in innovation processes. Onl... more This paper deals with the role of the State Owned enterprises (SOEs) in innovation processes. Only a few studies focus on the contribution SOEs as companies might give to produce new knowledge and technological innovation. We argue, however, that SOEs are a pillar of the innovation process and we explore conditions that can make SOEs very effective. Through two indepth case studies in two different industries (STMicroelectronics in the semiconductor and Thales Alenia Space in the space industry) we illustrate how SOEs can contribute to innovation by exploring new opportunities and recombining different sources of knowledge. We highlight the conditions that can make exploration and recombination possible. We also highlight the ability of the two companies to change their boundaries through a continuous wave of agreements, mergers and acquisitions. This way, they were able to expand beyond their domains in a way that matched the evolution of their original industries.
The author aims to link lead-user theory and its idea-generation function to the policy of public... more The author aims to link lead-user theory and its idea-generation function to the policy of public demand of innovation designed by agencies at government level. The discussion of the literature argues that the expertise of government agencies can help companies in market foresight, technological opportunities and product innovation
The chapter presents the process of decision-making and the practice of international expansion o... more The chapter presents the process of decision-making and the practice of international expansion of a family business in the nineteenth century. The Swiss family business Legler moved to the area near Bergamo, Italy, in 1875, and expanded its operation over multiple generations. This chapter explores the cognitive dimension of the internationalisation process, how culture and family ties are used to understand risk and opportunities, and how a family business interprets push and pull factors under the lens of cultural self-representation and meaning creation. The historical analysis shows the importance of economic, cultural, and family-driven factors in the process of decision-making and in the practice of going abroad and making internationalisation successful and long-lasting.
There is a paucity of studies which have analysed the role of internal processes for academic spi... more There is a paucity of studies which have analysed the role of internal processes for academic spinoffs in a systematic way. We focus on a specific nuance of internal processes which relate to the management practices that universities can put in place to influence the growth of academic spinoffs. Building upon recent literature on the empirical economics of management, we investigate whether and how different forms of management practices contribute to the growth of academic spin-offs. We collect survey data on universities' management practices by focusing on technology transfer offices, as well as drawing on a longitudinal sample of 790 Italian university spin-offs founded by 42 different Italian universities, which were observed over the period of 2006 to 2014. Our findings show that management practices help to explain the growth of academic spin-offs, although their effect varies across management practices. Supporting operations in the form of patenting and training as well as the existence of incentives are found to have a positive association with spinoff growth. A negative association is instead found for target setting (spinoff growth targets) and hiring of external management with private sector experience. We provide an explanation of these results by pointing to a combination of adverse selection, short-termism and weak enforceability by universities. Drawing on our results, the adoption of management practices by university managers and policy makers should be carefully considered, as they might have unintended consequences on the growth of academic spin-offs.
The author aims to link lead-user theory and its idea-generation function to the policy of public... more The author aims to link lead-user theory and its idea-generation function to the policy of public demand of innovation designed by agencies at government level. The discussion of the literature argues that the expertise of government agencies can help companies in market foresight, technological opportunities and product innovation
Creativity in the firms is limited by uncertainty in the future market demand. An innovation-inte... more Creativity in the firms is limited by uncertainty in the future market demand. An innovation-intermediary has the ability to share creative ideas between firms and markets. In the context of public-demand policies, the supply side might benefit from the idea-generator effect of a public-buyer with lead-user characteristics. A specialized agency is then an intermediary with expertise able to design public procurement to fit innovation sources in the market with technological knowledge in the firms. Propositions are drawn from the literature to build a theory of the expert public-buyer. Then, the case-study of the design of the satellite telecommunication in Italy is used to describe the phenomenon and provides insight for further empirical research. Evidences illustrate the potential benefit of expert-buyer in the contest of demand-driven innovation policies to create capabilities in complex technological domain and to convert latent needs to clear market demand.
This paper presents a proximal study of energy transition in a large state-owned enterprise. Orga... more This paper presents a proximal study of energy transition in a large state-owned enterprise. Organizational change is the prerequisite for energy transition in a company that has historically understood its own identity in the remunerative oil gas industry. The methodology of the research is a qualitative on-field study of the implementation of the transition strategy inside the company. For this purpose, the research uses primarily first-hand reports collected within the organization in the years 2018–2020. The paper explores the dynamic process of change to reveal the tensions, conflicting identities, and strategies of implementation needed to start the energy transition, shedding light on the formation of a new corporate identity that traces back to the entrepreneurial inception of the company. The role of communication between the different levels of the company was crucial. The management found in the corporate history a moderator of organizational change that led to a renewed ...
In this chapter, we propose an exploratory analysis of the Chinese acquisition of foreigner compa... more In this chapter, we propose an exploratory analysis of the Chinese acquisition of foreigner companies by state-owned enterprises during the last ten years (2008–2017). Cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) carried out by Chinese companies have shown strong growth, and have gradually emerged as the dominant vehicle for Chinese outward investment. Our aim is to understand the main dynamics underling the phenomenon of Chinese state-owned enterprises acquisitions in advanced countries. For this purpose, in our analysis we target only mergers and acquisition of companies in western countries in the last ten years. Our data collection returned a sample of around 150 cases. We use both quantitative and qualitative data to get insights about the main patterns of acquisition, industry choice, and country location. Moreover, we try to fill the gap related to the understanding of the rationalities for such strategic-asset-seeking M&A. Our conclusion contributes to the literature on international M&A and supports the business-oriented strategy of state-owned enterprises in dealing with cross border acquisitions.
The paper provides insights about the activities carried out by alumni organizations and understa... more The paper provides insights about the activities carried out by alumni organizations and understand how they can play a role in the current evolution of entrepreneurial universities. We explore the...
International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2016
This paper presents a comparative analysis of university-level support practices and entrepreneur... more This paper presents a comparative analysis of university-level support practices and entrepreneurial behaviour of spin-offs from nine universities in Boston. We explore the prerequisite to venture in the university, the entrepreneurs' attitude throughout the first years of activity, and discuss differences in spin-offs' outcomes. The investigation explores 81 academic spin-offs active since 2013. We found that two alternative behaviours are suitable to provide the right support to academic spin-offs. In top-academic institutions the availability of services and incentives to facilitate patent rights ownership, university equities, and venture capital is more likely to be found, while in lower-ranked universities spin-offs mostly rely on incubators services to overcome capital limitations.
The subject of this article is the inheritance of the parent university of academic spin-offs thr... more The subject of this article is the inheritance of the parent university of academic spin-offs through imitation and entrepreneurial learning. Building on a capability perspective, the article adds to the literature on university spin-offs and presents insights into the academic spin-off phenomenon that may be useful in supporting academic entrepreneurship. The study is based on four universities, all located in the metropolitan area of Milan. The authors followed the start-up processes of 74 spin-off ventures over the period 2004-2013, obtaining economic data for 61 of the ventures. The analysis we carried out shows that parent universities influence the industry distribution of spin-offs, since most spin-offs showing a positive performance were concentrated in industries that (1) could benefit from the most advanced research of the parent university and (2) were those in which previous start-ups had also tended to concentrate. Thus, a focus on the parent (university)-progeny (spin-off) dyad as the unit of analysis reveals that the specific capabilities available and previous spin-off experience developed in the university play an important role in facilitating spin-off ventures and influencing new firms' behaviour in their start-up and development phases.
Nella proliferazione degli orientamenti epistemologici e delle tematiche, l’elemento costitutivo ... more Nella proliferazione degli orientamenti epistemologici e delle tematiche, l’elemento costitutivo della storia, intesa come disciplina scientifica, rimane il ricorso alle fonti originali (o primarie); su di esse poggia la pretesa veritativa della storiografia, che si contrappone all’uso sensazionalistico della storia o alle pressioni mediatiche ed editoriali che spingono in direzione contraria, verso un impiego sempre più veloce e opportunistico delle fonti derivate (o secondarie).Ma come ebbe a scrivere Carlo M. Cipolla, lo storico che si rifà solo alle fonti secondarie è in qualche modo simile «al chirurgo che ha letto solo libri di chirurgia e non si è mai avvicinato ad un tavolo operatorio né ha mai preso in mano un bisturi». Le fonti d’archivio costituiscono il contatto empirico dello storico con il passato e, insieme alla forma che assume la spiegazione storica, danno legittimità – se correttamente trattate – al realismo della disciplina. Tra queste, le fonti non indirizzate, vale a dire quelle non prodotte per informare consapevolmente i contemporanei e i posteri ma create per esigenze pratiche, hanno uno straordinario potenziale informativo; rappresentano infatti un elemento che può “dinamicamente” arricchire e/o correggere le ipotesi iniziali della ricerca. In questa direzione, oltre la loro pura archiviazione e conservazione, il trattamento informatico di fonti storiche seriali, reso sempre più a portata di mano dai progressi delle tecnologie digitali, costituisce un prodigioso strumento per il lavoro dello storico, sia sotto il profilo meramente conoscitivo che sotto quello più analitico. Gli esempi di valorizzazione delle fonti (sia primarie sia secondarie) in questo senso stanno diventando sempre più frequenti e online è possibile trovarne casi molto interessanti, realizzati da archivi e istituzioni sia pubblici che privati. Imberg.db, la banca dati sulle imprese bergamasche dall’Unità al 1978, che qui presentiamo, è costituita dalla trasposizione digitale – in database relazionale – delle informazioni desunte dalle tre anagrafi commerciali (che appartengono quindi alla categoria delle fonti primarie) esistenti per il periodo di riferimento. Quella che può essere considerata l’anagrafe economica digitale del territorio bergamasco dall’Unità alla fine degli anni Settanta (vale a dire fino all’anno, il 1978, in cui inizia il sistema di registrazione elettronico camerale), è stata progettata e realizzata, tra il 2002 e il 2008, dalla Fondazione Famiglia Legler (ora Fondazione Legler per la Storia economica e sociale di Bergamo) su incarico della Camera di Commercio di Bergamo, beneficiando di finanziamenti anche da parte della Fondazione Cariplo, della Provincia di Bergamo e di Regione Lombardia. Il database è liberamente interrogabile online, o presso la Fondazione, previa autorizzazione della Camera di Commercio di Bergamo, mentre un sample ne è visibile all’indirizzo web http://www.ffl.it/interroga.asp.
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity
A spin-out happens when an employee quits a company to start a new venture; however, theories do ... more A spin-out happens when an employee quits a company to start a new venture; however, theories do not agree on whether the ‘spin-out entrepreneur’ will start the company in the same or in a different industry. We investigated a sample of 250 entrepreneurs and 120 spin-out companies to understand what led an entrepreneur or a group of founders to enter a new industry. Our results contribute to theory, suggesting that spin-out entrepreneurs usually move to different and innovative industries owing to recombination of knowledge in founding teams. Our evidence supports the positive effect of different experiences within the team.
A driving force in the creation of new firms resides in the developments of novel technology by m... more A driving force in the creation of new firms resides in the developments of novel technology by members of current companies. When this happens, an employee gains the incentive to quit the parent company and start a new business venture (i.e. spin-out). Research on entrepreneurial employees and their spin-outs is fragmented and misleading. This chapter finds theoretical gaps and enlarges the understanding of the conditions that allow technological knowledge to give rise to entrepreneurial employees. The analysis of 23 entrepreneurs and 10 spin-out companies in the internet and bio-tech industries shows the pattern of creation of new technological enterprises. It recognizes the role of employees' entrepreneurship in the formation of innovative ventures. Eventually, the new technology moves again when an existing company acquires the spin-out along with the entrepreneur. This research solves conflicting views in the literature and gives insights into how entrepreneurs actively transfer technologies from one company to another. Entrepreneurial employees create new ventures in a different industry, combine multiple experiences in mature businesses, and pursue acquisition. These conclusions push scholars and practitioners to look at employees' accumulation of knowledge and business experience as a source of innovation.
Infrastructure Finance in Europe. Insights into the History of Water, Transport, and Telecommunications, 2016
The expansion in telecommunications traffic urged the development of a satellite network infrastr... more The expansion in telecommunications traffic urged the development of a satellite network infrastructure at the end of the last Century. Telecommunications satellite presents high costs of development and technological risks. The project design for the Italian telecommunications satellite consists in a case of Public Private Partnership framework to induce risky and costly research and development of a public infrastructure. This chapter compares the projects for SIRIO and Italsat satellites to highlight the differences in the partnership between the public buyer and the firms involved in two different procurement contracts. While the former suffers delay due to uncertainties about the technological requirements, in the latter case the partnership with a public agency has had the form of an agreement to purchase a service with specific requirements at a specific time in the future, creating incentives for innovation and on-time and on-budget implementation.
A spin-out appears when a former employee quits the parent company to start a new venture. Theori... more A spin-out appears when a former employee quits the parent company to start a new venture. Theories do not agree whether the “spin-out entrepreneur” will start the company in the same or in a different market and on her innovative contribution. We investigated a sample of 250 entrepreneurs and 120 spin-out companies to understand if an entrepreneur or a group of founders enter the same or a new market. Then, we explore how knowledge can recombine in a multi-founders team. Our results contributes to the theory, suggesting spin-out entrepreneurs usually move to different and innovative industries. Also, our evidences support the positive effect of different knowledge
This paper explores the occurrence of university spin-offs in the city of Milan to shed light on ... more This paper explores the occurrence of university spin-offs in the city of Milan to shed light on the process internal to universities which may influence the path of formation of new companies by academic entrepreneurs. The scarcely relevant number of university spin-offs in Italy is due to a bunch of reasons, among which cultural attitude neglecting business activities is widely diffused. However, a successful academic entrepreneur may provide a powerful example to other in the same university. If an imitative behavior exists among university colleagues, every university should experience spin-offs in a specific industry, where entrepreneurs who benefit from the examples of others just follow with their own spin-off. We compare 74 spin-offs form four universities in Milan to detect this parent university influence over spin-off activity. Our result suggests its existence and links the imitative behavior to better performance trends.
Object of this paper is to explain in which way universities differently influence their members ... more Object of this paper is to explain in which way universities differently influence their members to become entrepreneurs and how the early development of academic spin-offs depends on the university of origin. The aim is to correctly evaluate the potential for the future development of spin-offs based on the heritage of entrepreneurial legacy in the university of origin. The recurrence of entrepreneurial success at the university of origin is either an incentive to entrepreneurial activity in the same academic field or technological domain and a trustworthy predictor of the spin-offs performance. Despite some limitations, our contribution moves the comprehension of academic entrepreneurship toward a better understanding of the influences underlying different rates and behaviors of academic spin-offs.
Home of Italy's stock exchange, the city of Milan - the second-most populous city in Italy and th... more Home of Italy's stock exchange, the city of Milan - the second-most populous city in Italy and the capital of Lombardy - is an industrial powerhouse and the internationally accepted capital in fashion and design. Innovation measured in terms of granted patents shows a strong concentration in the province of Milan (Capello et al., 2001). The numbers of Italian patents’ applicants resident in the province of Milan is more than the 80% of the total. R&D expenditures in Lombardy count for as much as 22,5% of the total at national level and the researchers are 21,1% of the national total (Istat, 2013). Milan is considered one of the main startup cities in Europe and the first in Italy. Despite it is a matter of common perceptions instead of a scientific analysis, rankings on websites counting startups to measure the ability of a city to sustain the generation of a community of entrepreneurs -like Crunchbase and AngelList- found in Milan the best spot in Italy. Despite the city is far away from the top locations in terms of new business opportunity, corresponding to Berlin, London, and Tel Aviv, Milan benefits from a network of innovative tools such as incubators to facilitate entrepreneurship (Colapinto, 2011b), as well as it is home of many high technology firms, which lay on university departments for technology transfer (Friedman and Silberman, 2003). Seven universities are located in the urban area of Milan. At least four of them adopt policies sustaining entrepreneurship, have created a Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and have generated academic spin-offs (Colapinto, 2011a), which are defined as new companies started by former or current university employees, researchers, or students founding their own firms in order to commercially exploit their research and inventions. Several studies have already explored the relevance of academic spin-offs in Italy (Antonelli, 2004; Baroncelli et al., 2000; Baroncelli, 2001; Cesaroni et al., 2005; Chiesa and Piccaluga, 2000; Dell'Anno, 2010; Grandi and Grimaldi, 2003; Lazzeri and Piccaluga, 2012; Palumbo, 2011; Piccaluga, 2011). Often spin-offs take advantage of available external managerial skills and incorporate them in the venture. Cluster theory expects to find the most available managerial experience in the relative technological specialization of the city (Niosi and Bas, 2001; Saxenian, 1996). Thus Milan is a suitable location for the development of academic spin-offs. Research methods and sample We collected data on the academic spin-offs generated during the 14 years between 2000 and 2013 in the city of Milan. The population consists of all 74 university spin-offs companies created within four Milan universities. We have sent a questionnaire to the academic entrepreneurs which provided responses from 34 spin-offs, corresponding to a response rate of around 45% percent of the total population. We used both published data and survey responses to study the start and early development of academic spin-offs. Our hypothesis inquire the dependence of academic spin-offs on the existing regional advantage of industries in terms of technological relatedness, e.g. whether the impact of the introduction in the founding team of an industrial partner is conditioned to the availability of managerial skills in the location according to its industrial advantage.
Results and discussion Academic spin-offs imply that at least one entrepreneur joined the venture thanks to her relationship and/or affiliation to the university (as we previously specified), further members of the entrepreneurial team often come from other fields than academia. The normal entrepreneurial team profile, which on average comprise 4.75 members, includes 0.85 non university partners and 3.9 academic entrepreneurs for each spin-off. Our results show that the spin-offs performance is positively correlated to the industries which are overweighed in at local level in comparison with the normal distribution across the country varies according to the relative industry advantage of the local environment. Industrial expertise can be relevant to the development of competences. Then, interacting with industries will influence spin-offs performances when they correlate with the relative industrial advantage of the local setting. It means that in a given environment academic spin-offs tend to concentrate in some industries, those which count more players than the national average. Rational for this evidence may be the larger availability of managerial competence in the fields which show an higher degree of concentration in the specific local environment. Universities may improve their ability to generate new business venture through well-designed policies and procedures. However, the spin-offs performance seems to be strongly influenced by the interaction with the local environment, i.e industries concentration and consistent competences and skills available at local level.
Strategic Management Society 32nd Annual International Conference, Oct 7, 2012
An employee has the incentive to quit a company and start a new business venture
(spin-out) whe... more An employee has the incentive to quit a company and start a new business venture
(spin-out) when a discovery allows her to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity. The
discovery is the result of the employee’s knowledge accumulation made within the
firm. Then, such knowledge accumulation can flow out in a new entrepreneurial
opportunity. We call the new venture started autonomously by a former employee a
“spin-out.” While most studies analyze the nature of the spin-out at the firm level, we
argue that the success of a spin-out can be better understood by analyzing the prior
experience—in terms of knowledge accumulation—of the entrepreneur. The analysis
of several spin-out companies in the IT and bio-tech industries helps to confirm some
hypotheses built on the theory of spin-outs, contradicts others, and gives more insight
on employees’ knowledge mobility.
Creativity in the firms is limited by uncertainty in the future market demand. An innovation-inte... more Creativity in the firms is limited by uncertainty in the future market demand. An innovation-intermediary has the ability to share creative ideas between firms and markets. In the context of public-demand policies, the supply side might benefit from the idea-generator effect of a public-buyer with lead-user characteristics. A specialized agency is then an intermediary with expertise able to design public procurement to fit innovation sources in the market with technological knowledge in the firms. Propositions are drawn from the literature to build a theory of the expert public-buyer. Then, the case-study of the design of the satellite telecommunication in Italy is used to describe the phenomenon and provides insight for further empirical research. Evidences illustrate the potential benefit of expert-buyer in the contest of demand-driven innovation policies to create capabilities in complex technological domain and to convert latent needs to clear market demand.
"This proceeding paper focuses at the current debate on forward public procurement (fpp) as a pow... more "This proceeding paper focuses at the current debate on forward public procurement (fpp) as a powerful tool for refocusing private R&D investments towards innovative activities suitable of improving commercial and social impact of high-technologies. Fpp provides the market with advance information of future needs in outcome terms creating market opportunities for entrepreneurs. Here I suggest the analysis of a case study that could enlarge the knowledge about how this mechanism works and what its "best practice" could be. As well, I argue it can be an efficient tool for European policy-makers facing the current debt-crisis and the reform of the Lisbon agenda in order to reduce public spending policies.
Public procurement gained attention in Europe because of the privatization program requested by the European integration process. Indeed, during the 80s, the Italian Government, along with other European countries, ended direct intervention in economy in most of its former State-holdings. However, it was able to sustain a typical Government related business such as aerospace by the establishment of a public institution, the Italian Aerospace Agency (ASI) in 1988.
The first stage of my research shows that the ASI policy of public procurement was able to drive the technological effort of the main Italian aerospace company and former State-owned, Finmeccanica, towards a rationalization of the industry at the national level and greater technological competitiveness. Finally, the tool has allowed the space subsidiary of Finmeccanica, Alenia, to join with French company Thales space division in a European leading actor on the global market for the high-technologies. "
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Papers by Matteo Landoni
This chapter compares the projects for SIRIO and Italsat satellites to highlight the differences in the partnership between the public buyer and the firms involved in two different procurement contracts. While the former suffers delay due to uncertainties about the technological requirements, in the latter case the partnership with a public agency has had the form of an agreement to purchase a service with specific requirements at a specific time in the future, creating incentives for innovation and on-time and on-budget implementation.
We investigated a sample of 250 entrepreneurs and 120 spin-out companies to understand if an entrepreneur or a group of founders enter the same or a new market. Then, we explore how knowledge can recombine in a multi-founders team.
Our results contributes to the theory, suggesting spin-out entrepreneurs usually move to different and innovative industries. Also, our evidences support the positive effect of different knowledge
Despite some limitations, our contribution moves the comprehension of academic entrepreneurship toward a better understanding of the influences underlying different rates and behaviors of academic spin-offs.
Milan is considered one of the main startup cities in Europe and the first in Italy. Despite it is a matter of common perceptions instead of a scientific analysis, rankings on websites counting startups to measure the ability of a city to sustain the generation of a community of entrepreneurs -like Crunchbase and AngelList- found in Milan the best spot in Italy. Despite the city is far away from the top locations in terms of new business opportunity, corresponding to Berlin, London, and Tel Aviv, Milan benefits from a network of innovative tools such as incubators to facilitate entrepreneurship (Colapinto, 2011b), as well as it is home of many high technology firms, which lay on university departments for technology transfer (Friedman and Silberman, 2003).
Seven universities are located in the urban area of Milan. At least four of them adopt policies sustaining entrepreneurship, have created a Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and have generated academic spin-offs (Colapinto, 2011a), which are defined as new companies started by former or current university employees, researchers, or students founding their own firms in order to commercially exploit their research and inventions. Several studies have already explored the relevance of academic spin-offs in Italy (Antonelli, 2004; Baroncelli et al., 2000; Baroncelli, 2001; Cesaroni et al., 2005; Chiesa and Piccaluga, 2000; Dell'Anno, 2010; Grandi and Grimaldi, 2003; Lazzeri and Piccaluga, 2012; Palumbo, 2011; Piccaluga, 2011). Often spin-offs take advantage of available external managerial skills and incorporate them in the venture. Cluster theory expects to find the most available managerial experience in the relative technological specialization of the city (Niosi and Bas, 2001; Saxenian, 1996). Thus Milan is a suitable location for the development of academic spin-offs.
Research methods and sample
We collected data on the academic spin-offs generated during the 14 years between 2000 and 2013 in the city of Milan. The population consists of all 74 university spin-offs companies created within four Milan universities. We have sent a questionnaire to the academic entrepreneurs which provided responses from 34 spin-offs, corresponding to a response rate of around 45% percent of the total population.
We used both published data and survey responses to study the start and early development of academic spin-offs. Our hypothesis inquire the dependence of academic spin-offs on the existing regional advantage of industries in terms of technological relatedness, e.g. whether the impact of the introduction in the founding team of an industrial partner is conditioned to the availability of managerial skills in the location according to its industrial advantage.
Results and discussion
Academic spin-offs imply that at least one entrepreneur joined the venture thanks to her relationship and/or affiliation to the university (as we previously specified), further members of the entrepreneurial team often come from other fields than academia. The normal entrepreneurial team profile, which on average comprise 4.75 members, includes 0.85 non university partners and 3.9 academic entrepreneurs for each spin-off.
Our results show that the spin-offs performance is positively correlated to the industries which are overweighed in at local level in comparison with the normal distribution across the country varies according to the relative industry advantage of the local environment. Industrial expertise can be relevant to the development of competences. Then, interacting with industries will influence spin-offs performances when they correlate with the relative industrial advantage of the local setting. It means that in a given environment academic spin-offs tend to concentrate in some industries, those which count more players than the national average. Rational for this evidence may be the larger availability of managerial competence in the fields which show an higher degree of concentration in the specific local environment.
Universities may improve their ability to generate new business venture through well-designed policies and procedures. However, the spin-offs performance seems to be strongly influenced by the interaction with the local environment, i.e industries concentration and consistent competences and skills available at local level.
(spin-out) when a discovery allows her to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity. The
discovery is the result of the employee’s knowledge accumulation made within the
firm. Then, such knowledge accumulation can flow out in a new entrepreneurial
opportunity. We call the new venture started autonomously by a former employee a
“spin-out.” While most studies analyze the nature of the spin-out at the firm level, we
argue that the success of a spin-out can be better understood by analyzing the prior
experience—in terms of knowledge accumulation—of the entrepreneur. The analysis
of several spin-out companies in the IT and bio-tech industries helps to confirm some
hypotheses built on the theory of spin-outs, contradicts others, and gives more insight
on employees’ knowledge mobility.
Public procurement gained attention in Europe because of the privatization program requested by the European integration process. Indeed, during the 80s, the Italian Government, along with other European countries, ended direct intervention in economy in most of its former State-holdings. However, it was able to sustain a typical Government related business such as aerospace by the establishment of a public institution, the Italian Aerospace Agency (ASI) in 1988.
The first stage of my research shows that the ASI policy of public procurement was able to drive the technological effort of the main Italian aerospace company and former State-owned, Finmeccanica, towards a rationalization of the industry at the national level and greater technological competitiveness. Finally, the tool has allowed the space subsidiary of Finmeccanica, Alenia, to join with French company Thales space division in a European leading actor on the global market for the high-technologies. "