Chapter 4 Now You See Them — Now You Don't: Paradoxes in Enterprise Development Strategy: The Case of the Disappearing Academic Start-UpsDeirdre HuntNow You See Them — Now You Don't: Paradoxes in Enterprise Development Strategy: The Case of the Disappearing Academic Start-Ups

Abstract

A series of research experiences provoked this paper. In the spring of 2003, I was asked to act as an assessor, for the Island of Ireland Seed Corn competition¹. There I came across academic start-ups (ASUs), directly linked to Irish public sector science and technology (S&T) funding. Several of the competition teams consisted of young scientists, who presented business plans. Probing demonstrated that the teams appeared to possess little understanding of the business concepts these contained. Another consistent finding was that any market reference made was focused on multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries already located in the country. Intrigued by this, together with a colleague, we then began looking at ASUs, university-based funded S&T research centres and the activities of the newly created Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI).²

Citation

Hunt, D. (2008), "Chapter 4 Now You See Them — Now You Don't: Paradoxes in Enterprise Development Strategy: The Case of the Disappearing Academic Start-UpsDeirdre HuntNow You See Them — Now You Don't: Paradoxes in Enterprise Development Strategy: The Case of the Disappearing Academic Start-Ups", Groen, A., Van Der Sijde, P., Oakey, R. and Cook, G. (Ed.) New Technology-Based Firms in the New Millennium (New Technology Based Firms in the New Millennium, Vol. 6), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 37-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1876-0228(08)06004-3