ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN LIFE SCIENCES: THE CASE OF A MODERATE INNOVATOR COUNTRY

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (01) ◽  
pp. 1650004 ◽  
Author(s):  
AURORA A. C. TEIXEIRA ◽  
JOÃO NOGUEIRA

The commercialization of research done by universities and research institutes is seen as a key element of entrepreneurship, justifying a better understanding of the entrepreneurial process within those institutions. Despite efforts in recent decades, there remains a widespread ignorance about who are the individuals with a greater vocation for research and marketing of knowledge. Focusing on a relatively unexplored context — the field of life sciences in a moderate innovator country, Portugal — this study adds new empirical evidence to the precedents of academic entrepreneurship. The results, based on 247 responses, evidence that entrepreneurship (including patent production, consultancy work and creation of start-up companies) is still very incipient. The econometric analysis of the “Index of entrepreneurial activity,” shows that: (1) the phenomenon of academic entrepreneurship is within everyone’s reach, but embraced by very few; and (2) academic entrepreneurship feeds on the exchange of knowledge and resources among universities and research institutes and their socio-economic environment. Thus, to increase academic entrepreneurship in life science in Portugal, the mechanisms to facilitate the interactions between universities and the business community must be strengthened, promoting the development of business clusters with the integration of the academic world, which will enable the transformation of knowledge into market products and services.

Although various studies have been conducted to examine the role of knowledge in the entrepreneurial process, the results reveal inconsistencies. Moreover, the relationship between knowledge factors and their role in explaining the entrepreneurial intentions still has no clear answer. Our study investigates the effects of knowledge factors on the likelihood to engage in entrepreneurial activity. Our analyses are based on data collected for the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Monitors (GEM) from individuals locates in Southeast Asian Nations including Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam with a sample of 1964, 2902 and 1889 participants, respectively. Our findings show that knowledge, skills and experience and knowing an entrepreneur have a significant impact on the entrepreneurial intentions. The contribution of this study is twofold. First, it provides empirical evidence on the relationship between knowledge factors and start-up activity. Second, it contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurship environment in Southeast Asian Nations, a critical part of the world.


1970 ◽  
pp. 17-25
Author(s):  
Yusuf Sidani

This study attempts to sketch a profile of young female entrepreneurs in the Arab region as they start their business organisations and take the first few steps in the development of their business. It attempts to draw a profile of a number of local Emirati women entrepreneurs and their characteristics, what attracts them to their businesses, and the hurdles they face as they enter into their line of business. In addition, it outlines the makeup of their entrepreneurial businesses, and identifies some barriers that women face at the start-up stage, in addition to their entrepreneurial motivations and driving forces, satisfactions, and frustrations. This is preceded by a brief overview of models of female entrepreneurship and an exploration of previous research into female entrepreneurship and women status in the Arab region. To accomplish this, we conducted thirteen interviews with young female entrepreneurs to assess the special challenges facing them as they go about starting and running their business ventures. We tried to gauge the interviewees’ entrepreneurial activities, their satisfaction with their business ventures, and the perceived opportunities and obstacles that they face. While this study explores the specific case of the UAE, the wider implications on young female Arab entrepreneurs are discussed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena A.E. Tibell ◽  
Carl-Johan Rundgren

Molecular life science is one of the fastest-growing fields of scientific and technical innovation, and biotechnology has profound effects on many aspects of daily life—often with deep, ethical dimensions. At the same time, the content is inherently complex, highly abstract, and deeply rooted in diverse disciplines ranging from “pure sciences,” such as math, chemistry, and physics, through “applied sciences,” such as medicine and agriculture, to subjects that are traditionally within the remit of humanities, notably philosophy and ethics. Together, these features pose diverse, important, and exciting challenges for tomorrow's teachers and educational establishments. With backgrounds in molecular life science research and secondary life science teaching, we (Tibell and Rundgren, respectively) bring different experiences, perspectives, concerns, and awareness of these issues. Taking the nature of the discipline as a starting point, we highlight important facets of molecular life science that are both characteristic of the domain and challenging for learning and education. Of these challenges, we focus most detail on content, reasoning difficulties, and communication issues. We also discuss implications for education research and teaching in the molecular life sciences.


2004 ◽  
Vol 820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Daub ◽  
Rolf M. Kaack ◽  
Oliver Gutmann ◽  
Chris P. Steinert ◽  
Remigius Niekrawietz ◽  
...  

AbstractFor the performance of certain analytical and diagnostic tasks in modern Life Science applications high throughput screening (HTS) methods are essential. Miniaturization, parallelization and automation allow to decrease consumption of expensive materials and lead to faster analyzing times. The miniaturization of total assay volumes by the use of microtiter plates as well as the microarray technology have revolutionized the field of biotechnology and Life Sciences. Neither printing of microarrays with droplet volumes of several picoliters, nor handling of precious enzymes in the upper nanoliter range can be accomplished with traditional liquid handling devices like air displacement pipettes. The development of novel low volume liquid handling devices, which are subject to current research, addresses the diverse requirements shifting steadily to lower volumes. Various novel non-contact dispensing methods in the nanoliter and picoliter range are presented and classified according to their working principles like air displacement and direct displacement methods (TopSpot®, NanoJetTM, Dispensing Well PlateTM). Properties of the various methods are compared in terms of flexibility, integration density, speed of operation, precision, addressable volume range and amenability to multi-parallel operation.


2009 ◽  
pp. 67-92
Author(s):  
Camilla Lenzi ◽  
Maria Luisa Mancusi

- This paper evaluates the importance of some key elements in the process leading to the birth and start-up of a new firm. We focus on a sample of recently founded and innovative European firms in technological fields characterised by strong innovative and competitive dynamics in the last 15 years. Emphasis is placed both on the role of the founder and on the assets exploited and developed in the new ventures early stages. The analysis of the questionnaire confirms the importance of the intellectual capital of the founder and of the scientific and technological knowledge acquired during advanced studies or previous work experiences. It further confirms the importance of the human and financial capital (particularly, access to external funds) necessary to the start of entrepreneurial activity, of intellectual property rights and of the network of relationships with actors having complementary knowledge and assets (other firms, universities and public research centres, parent organisation). The analysis finally highlights interesting differences both at the geographical and sectoral level. Differences across geographical regions include the degree of development of financial markets and the opportunities to access external financial resources, but also and mostly the functions performed and the effectiveness of the university system. On the other side, differences across sectors include the assets exploited in founding the new venture and the key competences that allow it to survive and eventually grow. Keywords: entrepreneurship, spin-off, patent Parole chiave: imprenditorialitŕ, spin-off, brevetto Jel Classification: L10, M13, O30


2021 ◽  
pp. 002205742110268
Author(s):  
Joel I. Cohen

Naturalists enrich our scientific understanding of biodiversity. However, just as countries have fallen behind on commitments to provide biodiversity conservation funding, so has the focus of life science stayed arm’s length. The purpose of this article is to consider why biodiversity should be the center of life sciences education and how biographies of Charles Darwin and the incorporation of female scientists allow important findings, paintings, and journaling as part of standard teachings. The addition of female naturalists will provide role models for diverse, underrepresented student populations. This article suggests that biodiversity and biography become central to hteaching life sciences while supplemented by other practices. Such reallocations provide students an opportunity to learn not only what these scientists discovered but how these individuals “developed” into scientists.


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