Crossing the valley

In his third article on funding hi-tech firms, James McKenzie looks at recent initiatives to help them jump over the “valley of death”.

Bridging the ‘Valley of Death’: Can Agile Principles Be Applied in Industry-Academia Research and Innovation Projects?

Government funding supports industry-academia research and innovation projects in Norway, sharing the risk of the research component in innovation. However, funding alone may not be sufficient to overcome potential differences in collaborative agendas and ways of working. As a result, positive research outcomes often get stuck in the valley of death, instead of ending up as successful innovations that create value. To contribute to bridging the valley of death, we investigated the importance of six agile principles for collaborative industry-academia research and innovation projects, abbreviated IPN in Norway. The study was limited to the manufacturing sector. We surveyed 124 IPN project leaders (70 from industry; 54 from academia) to evaluate the importance of the knowledge management practices associated with the six agile principles across the three project stages. The statistical analyses indicate the consistency of the agile principles throughout the project stages. This means that agile principles are relevant for IPN projects and can be used as guidelines for improvement of the knowledge management practices. Moreover, the study identifies the agile principles that are perceived as most important to use in different stages of a project. It also identifies the different perceptions of the importance of agile principles of the project leaders from industry and academia. These findings can support project leaders who are implementing agile principles to industry-academia research and innovation projects. The results from the study can also support national and federal research/innovation councils in decision-making when assessing industrial research applications.

Crossing the Valley of Death for SMEs: Management Practices From China

The purpose of this article is to explain and solve the early stage of High-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) development issue in Tianjin, specifically the so-called Valley of Death. The Valley of Death is used as a metaphor to describe the relative lack of resources and expertise in the area of development. In this article, the resources and expertise mainly refer to the financing and loans required by high-tech SMEs in the early stage. Through the analysis of the actual situation of developing high-tech SMEs in Tianjin, the article illustrates organizations can bridge the Valley of Death through coordination and institutional support. The literature review and normative analysis methodology used in this study gathered data from literature and second-hand materials with extensive experience to construct the framework model of early stage development of Tianjin high-tech SMEs. Results indicate that institutional support has been very effective in addressing the Valley of Death. Implications of these findings suggest local government must understand the challenges in the valley, must facilitate the development of skills for the SMEs, and must supply the resources to SMEs.