Research on firm’s that already from inception see the whole world as a market and/or the whole world as a source to access resources, so called born globals. Many of these firms, build their competitive advantage on high-tech knowledge. Universities have shown to be an important actor, to create technology knowledge, and numerous studies have shown how new firms are created around universities, so called University Spin-offs (USOs). Earlier research has shown that some USOs are successful with their international growth strategies. This study aims to explore why some USOs are successful in their international growth strategy and some are not. 10 USO around the newly established Halmstad University in Sweden is investigated. Both USOs founded be students and researchers are included in the sample. This study shows the positive influence of a university for firm creation and international growth. The regional competence base has increased by the establishment of a local university, primarily by strengthening the regional human capital, but lately also by an increased amount of university research. This study has showed student entrepreneurs more successful in growth and international development than researcher entrepreneurs, which imply that further development of support for student entrepreneurship is fruitful to create international growing firms.

Credit intermediation - accepting deposits or other short-term funding from surplus agents and lending it on to corporations, households and public bodies with borrowing needs - is typically associated with banks. Traditionally credit intermediation has been provided through a business model where banks act as single intermediaries, managing all stages of the credit intermediation process. The role of other financial intermediaries, such as investment funds, has been limited. However, in recent decades, the provisioning of credit has become increasingly segmented, with the various stages of the intermediation process supplied by a variety of financial entities, specializing on one particular or several stages in the intermediation chain. The potential benefits from such segmentation are substantial. It allows for more efficient intermediation, provides opportunities to diversify risk, improves pricing and allocation of risk as well as avoids its concentration in (typically a few large) banks. It also increases supply of funding and liquidity, thereby lowering costs for banks, their clients and the overall economy (Duffie, 2008; Bengtsson, 2014a). © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Anastasia Nesvetailova; individual chapters, the contributors.

This paper presents and assesses a framework for monitoring vulnerabilities related to the residential real estate sector, which can be easily employed for policy purposes. The framework provides intuitive and transparent early warning signals through a composite vulnerability measure, which aggregates indicators in a model-free way across three dimensions of real estate sector vulnerabilities (i.e. valuation, household indebtedness and the bank credit cycle). Our vulnerability measure proves to be a significant predictor of historical real estate crises, with a better forecasting performance than the majority of advantageously in-sample calibrated model-based measures. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.

The global nancial crisis has led to an increased focus on identifying systemically-important nancial institutions and on assessing to what extent they contribute to risks in the nancial system. However, producing an identi cation method is complicated and associated with several dif cult choices. This article provides some guidance on how to design methods for identifying systemically-important banks in Sweden. Both simple and advanced indicators are used. One conclusion is that the systemic importance of the four major Swedish banks varies considerably over time. It is also apparent that the different indicators can provide different results for the ranking of systemically- important banks, despite the fact that each indicator in itself provides a rather constant ranking over time. The different indicators of systemic importance should therefore be able to complement each other to a great degree. This suggests that several different indicators may be needed when assessing the risks in individual banks and the system as a whole.

Purpose – This paper brings new material to the understanding of interlinkages between motivation, learning and performance in academic contexts. By investigating these interlinkages in a new context – students of business and management at a Swedish university college – it seeks to answer the following research questions: How do students’ degree and type of motivation relate to their learning strategies?; how do students’ degree and type of motivation and learning strategies relate to their academic success?; and how do student characteristics in terms of experience and gender influence the nature and strength of these relationships?

Research methodology – The data used in this paper is based on student surveys and a centralised system of reporting and archiving academic results. The latter contains information on the academic performance of individual students, whereas the surveys gathered information on the students’ background characteristics (experience and gender), their motivation for pursuing academic studies and their learning strategies. The difference in proportion tests and OLS regressions were then applied to investigate differences between student groups and relationships between the different variables.

Findings – The findings reveal that business students are more extrinsically than intrinsically motivated; that deep learning approaches lead to higher grades for particular examination forms, and that female students are typically more intrinsically motivated, engage more in deep learning approaches and perform better than their male counterparts.

Practical implications – The findings suggest that practitioners in higher education involved with the business and/or university college students have good reasons to stimulate motivation generally, and intrinsic motivation in particular. However, this must be accompanied by examination forms that promote deep learning.

Originality/Value – In contrast to most research, this paper focuses on the interlinkages between motivation, learning and performance among business students in a university college setting. This contrasts most research on this topic which tends to be focused on university students, particularly in the US, in other fields of study or accounting. Moreover, this paper also takes student characteristics into account and uses a variety of measures to operationalise academic performance. Copyright © 2019 Bengtsson & Teleman. Published by VGTU Press

The aim of this paper is to describe how the development of an entrepreneurial university contributes to the commercialisation of research. This is illustrated with the case of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. The findings show the importance of early pioneers creating a favourable culture from the very beginning of the university's existence. It also shows the influence of a few key individuals for the developed best practice in the innovation support system, which is to commercialise research by match-making researchers with complementing competences like entrepreneurship students as well as using alumni.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and visualize alternative ways – how and by whom – that academic research can come into commercial use. This study in the Swedish context investigates one entrepreneurial university, Chalmers University of Technology. In total, 18 interviews were conducted about researchers' views on commercialization and on how research comes into commercial use.Five propositions are advocated in relation to researchers’ role as enablers of others' commercialization. The concept of “need for utilization” is introduced as the critical explanation for researchers'  readiness to transfer knowledge mainly via alumni to established companies. This study suggests that both universities and policy should acknowledge alternative ways of commercialization of academic research instead of putting all efforts on trying to transform unwilling academic researchers into entrepreneurs. One alternative is to foster ongoing contacts between researchers and alumni, who make commercial use of academic research in established firms. This study furthers the knowledge about researchers’ individual motivation for commercialization, as driven by a “need for utilization.” By showing how researchers enable others commercialization, this study broadens the prevailing focus on researchers' formation of university spin-offs as the essential output from entrepreneurial universities. The results also contribute to understanding the role of alumni in knowledge transfer to existing industry. © 2017 © Emerald Publishing Limited

This licentiate thesis deals with the questions if and how entrepreneurship education and access to research at university stimulate student start-ups. The phenomenon of student entrepreneurs is approached in three empirical studies. In the first study mail questionnaires were sent out to former entrepreneurship students at three universities in Sweden, in order to find out if the students’ entrepreneurial behaviour was influenced by education. The second study explores differences in communication skills and the handling of liabilities of newness between entrepreneurs with entrepreneurship education at university and/or previous start-up experience. Student entrepreneurs are compared with a control group of randomly chosen Swedish entrepreneurs. In the third study, the influence from university research on student entrepreneurship as well as direct and indirect regional effects are examined through interviews with university spin-offs around Halmstad University. Entrepreneurship education at university is found to influence entrepreneurial behaviour, to increase the student’s awareness of business opportunities and to result in high start-up frequency early in life. The student entrepreneurs perceive fewer problems to handle some aspects of liability of newness as well as communicative skills in terms of openness and adaptation. Other-orientation is on the other hand supported by previous start-up experience. Hence, with experience from both entrepreneurship education and previous start-up, the students seem well prepared for future start-ups. The case study show multiple and long term indirect effects from student entrepreneurship in developing an entrepreneurial region. Established student entrepreneurs support less experienced student entrepreneurs by linking them to supplementary resources. Students are found to shoulder an important role as academic entrepreneurs in interaction with other individuals connected to the university.

The ongoing discussion about academic research not being sufficiently commercialized has overlooked the individual actors in the university context, not least students as potential entrepreneurs. The purpose of this thesis is to enhance our understanding of student entrepreneurs by exploring how entrepreneurship education and key actors in the university context facilitate the formation of student start-ups. Two overall research questions are in focus; i) How does entrepreneurship education at university facilitate start-up formation among students? ii) How and why do key actors in the university context facilitate the formation of student start-ups? These questions are answered by three sub-studies, presented in the five published and appended papers. The data were collected through postal questionnaires as well as interviews in the context of three universities, namely Halmstad University, Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg.

This thesis makes several contributions. Firstly, it shows that entrepreneurship education at university facilitates start-ups by enabling knowledge spillovers from research to students willing to take on the entrepreneurial role, the so-called missing link in academic entrepreneurship. Secondly, it also demonstrates that entrepreneurship education contributes to the development of long-term entrepreneurial capital, which facilitates future start-ups. Thirdly, entrepreneurship education facilitates start-ups by connecting key actors with different roles; students were found to be present, prepared and persistent entrepreneurs, alumni to be resource-providers and role models, while researchers became enablers with a need for utilization of their research. The revealed reasons for these interconnected key actors to enable student start-ups were; i) students are looking for a career, have start-ups skills from entrepreneurship education and access to role-models and business opportunities in the university context; ii) alumni are anxious to pass on their business experience and maintain the mutually beneficial ties to the university; iii) researchers are reluctant to change their established career but with a strong need for utilization of their research enables students to make commercial use of it.

The aim of this paper is to describe how the development of an entrepreneurial university contributes to the commercialisation of research. This is illustrated with the case of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. The findings show the importance of early pioneers creating a favourable culture from the very beginning of the university’s existence. It also shows the influence of a few key individuals for the developed best practice in the innovation support system, which is to commercialise research by match-making researchers with complementing competences like entrepreneurship students as well as using alumni.

This article presents a Swedish case study of the regional effects of academic spin-offs. It is based on empirical data from Halmstad University and the Halmstad region, on the west coast of Sweden. The Halmstad case functions as an illustration of co-existing territorial and functional rationales, where a “rurban” lifestyle is combined with an increasingly “pracademic” knowledge. Spillover effects of university research (directly as well as indirectly) in the form of academic spin-offs have been traced over time. In doing so, we are able to identify two waves of academic entrepreneurship with direct and indirect regional effects. These waves contribute to the strengthening of the regional entrepreneurship and the attractiveness of the region. The establishment and (early) actions of the university can be seen as a stone that was thrown in the water, causing several waves to appear in the region. Whether these waves will be reinforced enough to create an entrepreneurial region, or just slowly disappear as rings on the water, also depends on the creation of an absorptive capacity and construction of the regional innovation system.

In recent decades, policy makers and researchers have taken an increased interest in university spin-offs. Entrepreneurship research provides limited knowledge of the role of the social network actors of external entrepreneurs in the formation process of university spin-offs. External entrepreneurs, who come from outside the university, are likely to use other network actors than academic researchers. This may influence the subsequent development of the firm. The purpose is to develop a conceptual framework for the role of social network actors in the formation of university spin-offs managed by external and inventor entrepreneurs. Literature of social networking, university spin-off formation and external and inventor entrepreneurs guide this study. This study employs a case study design that contains three external and three inventor entrepreneurs of Swedish university spin-offs. The results demonstrate that business actors, support actors and technology actors influence the firm formation process. The study also shows that external entrepreneurs have strong ties (direct access) to business actors while inventor entrepreneurs have weak ties (indirect access) to business actors via the university incubator. University incubators are less important for external entrepreneurs than inventor entrepreneurs because of their strong ties to business actors. The chapter provides implications for researchers and policy makers. © 2017 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Entrepreneurs seem to be highly valuable for the firms in which they are involved. However, the knowledge of the role of accounting in a context of entrepreneurship is limited. In fact, some literature on entrepreneurship indicates that the role of accounting is only about the past and therefore not of interest for entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial process.

This dissertation reports the results of two empirical studies. The first study is a qualitative pilot study of five entrepreneurs in fast growing firms and their participation in the year-end procedure. The respondents were presented the adjustments in the final step of the recording process and the annual report in order to assess their participation and to focus on how the entrepreneurs as producers of accounting reflect and act in relation to other actors and to the process of reporting. The pilot study found that the entrepreneurs were certainly involved in use and produce of certain accounting in the year-end procedures. The second study is based on the result from the pilot study and on agency theory the study aimed to describe and explain how and why entrepreneurs in successful fast growing firms, i.e. Gazelle firms, compared with a control group of managers in not growing firms, are participating in the year-end procedures. Also, the study aimed to analyse differences between entrepreneurs´ participation and other managers´ participation in this process. The study focused on the activities in the year-end procedures concerned with the values of R&D, stock and work-in-progress and accounts receivables. In order to find entrepreneurs the survey was sent to a sample of 257 managers of Gazelle firms and to a sample of 227 managers in not growing firms. Also, the annual report from the firms where the respondents where involved were collected. This data was also included in the study. The responding rate was 50% from both groups. The most notable finding is, in contradiction to literature on entrepreneurship, that entrepreneurs in Gazelle firms use and produce formal financial accounting information. Entrepreneurs in Gazelle firms spend more time and they are also involved in discussions with more actors compared with managers in not growing firms. Further, the results indicate that entrepreneurs in Gazelle firms will participate to a larger extent when the profitability in the firm decreases compared to managers in not growing firms. Finally, the dissertation gives insight in the role of formal financial accounting in the context of entrepreneurship, a research area we know little about.

Entrepreneurs seem to be highly valuable for the firms in which they are involved. However, the knowledge of the role of accounting in a context of entrepreneurship is almost non-existent.  Infact, literature in entrepreneurship says that the role of accounting is only about the past and therefore not of interest for the entrepreneur in exploiting opportunities. This paper reports the result of a qualitative study of five entrepreneurs and their involvement in the process of financial reporting. The study aimed to describe and analyse if and how entrepreneurs are involved in producing accounting information when the annual report were prepared. If the entrepreneurs were involved, the purpose was also to explain why the entrepreneurs were involved in the process. In purpose to find entrepreneurs the owner-managers of five small growing companies were asked to participate in semi-structured interviews during which their involvement to produce accounting where discussed. The respondents were also presented the adjustments, the final step in the recording process, and the annual report, in order to assess their involvement and to focus on how the entrepreneurs as producers of annual reports reflect and act in relation to other actors and to the process on the reporting.

The study found that the entrepreneurs were certainly involved in producing the annual report. The analysis reveals that the reports were carefully fabricated and consciously managed by the entrepreneurs in the study. The entrepreneurs where involved in the process when certain values of the assets were established and they wrote the directors annual report.

The study concludes that it appears to be important for entrepreneurs in small growing firms to discuss and produce accounting together with other actors, primarily the accountant, to improve their understanding and to identify how the audience of the annual reports may read and interpret the annual reports.

An integration of activities such as incubators, technology transfer, student and alumni organisations etc related to entrepreneurship education is seen as promoting economic development and innovativeness in many parts of the world. This way of creating systems for entrepreneurship development has also recently been focused in Sweden. As a result of Swedish Government's ambition to stimulate growth economy, university entrepreneurship education program spring up all over the country in order to promote students' entrepreneurship.From previous research we know that the infrastructure has an impact for entrepreneurship (Delatte & Baytos, 1993; Hannon, 2003; Rosa & Dawson, 2006, Xu, 2010). The structure relates to the number of individuals in the management structure and the role the individual has in the management structure such as member of the board or manager. It also refers to characteristics of the individuals involved in the management such as diversity, gender, age, education competence and previous experience (Rosa & Dawson, 2006). Further, it has been shown that managers are important since a lack of role models have been shown to have an impact for both female entrepreneurs and female managers in decisions of starting and/or managing a business (Crampton & Mishra, 1999; Mattis, 2004). However, public and private initiatives aimed to support business development usually are following a gender blind norm both in the way it is presented, for example regarding language and psychological accessibility, and considering the fields pointed out. Research shows that women don't feel themselves addressed by these initiatives or that it concerns them (NUTEK, 2001; NUTEK, R 2007:34).Swedish Government recently challenged to higher education institutions to apply for finance to a development towards world- class standard in educational programmes in entrepreneurship and innovation (Prop. 2008/2009:1/16). The invitation was directed to higher education institutions that already run advanced studies in entrepreneurship and innovation and that also have a strong connection to research in the same area. Swedish National Agency for Higher Education was commissioned by the Government to examine the applications and invited a panel of international academic experts to asses the applications. Eleven applications were submitted from higher education institutions in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. Four of the eleven institutions which applied where recommended by the panel of experts and these institutions were further ranked and recommended by Swedish National Agency for Higher Education to the University Chancellor. Two of these institutions were finally selected to be financed by the Swedish Government.This paper focuses on these eleven applications and the review process. The aim of the paper is to analyze and illustrate in what way the applications as well as the review process is gendered for example in terms of discourse and symbols in relation to educational setting, organizational structure, infrastructure, education management, education team assigned and branches of industry (Acker, 1992; Bruni, Gherardi & Poggio, 2005; Gunnarsson, Westberg, Andersson & Balkmar, 2007). We expect to find how gender is mirrored in these highly ranked applications and what impact the presence or absence of a gender focus will have for entrepreneurship and innovation education.

Managers’ use of auditors in decision processes are well known in the accounting literature but little is known on managers in innovative firms and their acquisition of accounting knowledge through direct contacts with auditors. We conducted a multiple embedded study of exploratory character based on 19 interviews with managers and auditors connected to six innovative firms. We show that managers in innovative firms apply informal management control in early phases and thus also rely to a high extent on external auditors for such purposes. Management acquisition of accounting knowledge may however stepwise contribute to a more formalized control system as management competence increase. This study suggests that competence based view may be useful for understanding the role of accounting and auditors.

Using a unique database and manually collected data we analyse and document accounting choices made by Swedish SMEs between 2005 and 2008. We find that given an option to report under Swedish GAAP or a translation of IFRS (SFASC/IFRS), only 5 firms out of 1,500 opted to do so. Further analysis of choices of picking individual standards of SFASC/IFRS shows no significant difference across Gazelles and Non-Gazelles. Among firms that select individual SFASC/IFRS standards most opt to use the percentage-of-completion method for long-term contracts. We also investigate differences in quality of financial reporting across Gazelles and Non-Gazelles and find that the financial reporting quality is consistently higher among Gazelles compared to Non-Gazelles. Test of cost of debt implications show that creditors find Gazelles’ financial reporting more useful to assess the credit risk resulting in lower cost of debt for this group of firms. Thus, SMEs seem to have little incentive to switch to SFASC/IFRS, which may be an indication of their attitude to future adoption of IFRS for SMEs as well. Furthermore, the results suggest that SMEs with an incentive to produce high quality financial reporting to raise capital, Gazelles, are able to do so using Swedish GAAP. These findings raise the question whether the IFRS for SMEs project is worthwhile.

We investigate improvements of the information environment and cost of debt implications. Capturing choices of accounting standards, auditor quality, and board size reflecting improvements of the information environment we find that the need of financing triggers an improvement, the most common actions are to switch to more qualified accountants and add board members. Improvements of the environment result in a reduction of cost of debt. Tests show that increasing audit quality decrease cost of debt. This is relevant to the discussion on accounting regulation for private firms among U.S. and European policy-makers showing that stakeholders do not demand valuation-oriented accounting.

Using a combination of survey data and unique archival databases we investigate the impact of managers´ participation in the year-end accounting process on the quality of financial reporting and cost of debt among Swedish privately owned Gazelles (rapidly growing firms) compared to Non-Gazelles. We find that managers of Gazelles are more prone to participate in the year-end accounting process compared to Non-Gazelles. Further, we find weak evidence that Gazelles produce higher quality financial reports (in terms of conservatism). Further, our results indicate that Gazelles experience lower cost of debt, though this is not statistically significant. We also find that private firms manage earnings to a greater extent the smaller they are and that the cost of debt systematically decreases with size for groups of firms.

This paper seeks to explore if there is an indication of a structural “glass ceiling” hindering women within business support environments. By analyzing 44 Swedish incubators’ web sites from four different perspectives, the study wants to describe and discuss the particular way gender seem to be structured in incubators’ organisations. The results reveal that there is a male dominance in the incubators’ organisations. The criteria for becoming an entrepreneur in the incubator such as characteristics are subtle. It can be assumed that hidden gender structures can prevent female entrepreneurs from entering the incubator.

Ideal science should conform to certain criteria or goals, among them the goals of universalism and commonality. Realization of these goals may be limited, however, through the dividing up of researchers in terms of geographical borders. In this study the general hypothesis is tested that there is a segmentation of the society of management researchers into a North American (US) and a European (E) segment, a segmentation which is furthered by differences in incentive schemes and in paradigms. Four leading management journals from North America and from Europe, respectively, and the 242 articles they contained published in 1993 were selected to represent the different geographical segments. The results provide: support for the existence of two such segments; support for differences in incentive schemes influencing the articles; support for their being paradigm differences between the two segments; and support for a paradigm effect being stronger in US-journals than in E-journals, US-authors are more willing, however, to conform to the E-paradigm than vice versa. We argue for methodological pragmatism in order to reduce the presumed counter-productive effects of paradigmatic rigidity.

A growing body of research suggests that a firm’s governance system can significantly impact the long-term value creative potential of an enterprise by disciplining and encouraging organizational efforts to pursue risky entrepreneurial projects. Following this stream of research, we present a study of the impact of ownership and board governance on entrepreneurship in small technology-based firms. Entrepreneurship was measured by the firms’ emphasis to take an entrepreneurial strategic posture (EP), encompassing a risk-taking, innovative and proactive competitive orientation. Statistical analysis on a sample of 135 small technology-based firms shows that the level of executive ownership has no significant effect on the emphasis on EP. However, controlling for the level of ownership held by the founder of the firm reveals a significant and negative influence on firms’ commitment to EP. With respect to board governance, we find support for that a higher board involvement in networking activities by board members encourage EP efforts, while there was no significant effects of higher board monitoring. In all, the findings give ample support for the argument that variations in ownership and board governance have a significant influence on the entrepreneurial strategic posture of small technology-based firms.

There has been an increasing interest in the determinants and outcomes of successful technology transfer and commercialization of research results. In this study we test the validity of the “knowledge corridor” thesis for explaining the involvement of university professors’ in the early stages of research commercialization. Statistical analysis on a sample of 86 respondents from engineering, natural science and medical faculties in a large Swedish university shows that both entrepreneurial and private industry experience significantly influence their ability to spot and generate business ideas in their research. Moreover, we find that research based business idea generation increase at a faster rate for professors with private sector work experience who have more time for research in their positions. The article ends with a discussion of our empirical findings together with its implications for support activities related to technology transfer and commercialization of research results.

Public programs and measures aimed to support business, innovation and entrepreneurship in Sweden are by tradition targeted manufacturing companies in order to develop technology and to make industry more competitive. Such initiatives are following a gender blind norm, in the way they define their fields of action, and also in how they are presented, for example regarding language and psychological accessibility. Research shows that women don‟t feel themselves addressed by these initiatives or that it concerns their companies.

We think that a deeper understanding about why women are not reached, or attracted, by official measures taken to support business growth, can guide us in developing new models, methods and tools to stimulate and facilitate a climate for growth of women‟s entrepreneurship and long-term improve the conditions for women to create, run and develop their enterprises. We exemplify this through cases from three national R&D programmes financed by VINNOVA (The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) and KK-Stiftelsen (the Swedish Knowledge Foundation), both governmental authorities and research funders that aims to promote growth and prosperity throughout Sweden.

In the paper we discuss official efforts aimed to support business development and growth. In what way are they gender marked? What structures are active on different levels? What is the consistence between ambitions from the program managers and how presentation of the programs is received by the target groups? Who are reached and who participates? 

Samverkan mellan forskare och praktiker är en form för kunskapsutveckling som idag föreskrivs av flera finansiärer av arbetslivets forsknings- och utvecklingsprogram. Denna interaktiva forskning utgår från teoriramar som skiljer den från traditionell forskning. Den innebär också att forskaren möter praktiska problem att hantera i sitt arbete. Vårt paper handlar om gnisslet i den interaktiva forskningens kulturmöten: det som i synonymordboken beskrivs som slitning, konflikt, motsättning, skavning och motstånd.

Forskningstraditioner. I vår genomgång belyser vi problem (missförstånd och motstånd) som kan uppstå i mötet mellan olika forskningstraditioner och ämnesdiscipliner, t ex i mötet mellan positivistisk och interaktiv forskningssyn, mellan genusforskare och naturvetare/tekniker. Interaktiv praktik. Här reflekterar vi över erfarenheter från tillämpad genusforskning, över problem kring rollidentitet och rollkonflikter som finns inbyggda i konstruktionen i möten mellan forskare och praktiker där rollerna är svåra att urskilja, och över det motstånd vi möter i processer som syftar till att integrera genus och att åstadkomma jämställdhet.

I vår diskussion reflekterar vi över det motstånd vi möter i förändringsarbetet, vilket bland annat genereras av de metoder vi använder i vårt interaktiva förhållningssätt. Olika kulturer möts – aktörer med olika bakgrund, erfarenheter och logik. Vi ser ett ökat behov av teoretiskt reflekterad metod- och metodologiutveckling – och inte minst en förståelse för detta hos dem som finansierar forskning och utveckling

In identifying and enacting roads to sustainable development in welfare states, several divides fragment the research community as well as the public policies being practised. First there is a major gap between what might be addressed as a functional and a territorial rationale. The former is supported by those who in the name of national development propose a concentration of efforts to advanced and boundary-spanning innovation systems, staged as resourceful coalitions between private business, policy-makers and the universities as major knowledge-creators. A territorial rationale in contrast withholds that the power of development is nested into the local community, its committed member firms and other stakeholders as a collective. The outcome of an analytical inquiry into the construction of these contradictory discourses is integrated into a three-dimensional model. These dimensions are: the dominant life-setting in the territory (place), the general outlook of the people in the locality/region and the critical competence needed to materialise ideas that emerge in the context. Based on our earlier research we then frame theoretically and illustrate empirically the argumentation in two Swedish territories, the industrial district (Gnosjö) and an urban area (Gothenburg). Finally we propose that the very bridging of these rationales or rationales both analytically and in practice build a dynamic foundation for territorial development. The associated 'virtual' rationale suggests the need for upholding an ongoing dialogue between contrasted rationales along each proposed dimension. The paper concludes with the implications of this view for public policy concerning localised business activity.

Today it is a well-established fact that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are important for economic growth and renewal. The ‘carrying out of new combinations’ may, however, have less to do with the size of a firm or organization, instead ‘newness’ in the form of innovation and entrepreneurship has again caught the attention of many academics and policymakers. Even so it is argued in this paper that the two areas of innovation policy a d entrepreneurship policy (both relatively recent as distinct policy areas) are seldom integrated and the concept of ‘innovative entrepreneurship policy’ has not yet fully emerged. This paper attempts to make a bridge between and integrate innovation and entrepreneurship policy. The paper presents an overview of innovation and entrepreneurship policies as derivatives of other policy areas, hinting at why it might be problematic to integrate an innovative entrepreneurship policy into existing policy areas. It is argued that public policy promoting innovation and economic growth must also involve instruments promoting entrepreneurship. Since this task is not easily accomplished, the concept of an Innovative entrepreneurship policy is also introduced in the discussion. It is argued that policies in favor of ‘innovative’ entrepreneurship should be considered in the context of a ‘holistic’ entrepreneurship policy framework. For innovative entrepreneurship to be able to fully contribute to economic growth and development it is suggested that its importance will need to be further acknowledged in innovation as well as entrepreneurship policies.

Globalization and the shift towards knowledge as the source of competitiveness have rendered traditional policy instruments less effective (Gilbert et al., 2004). Traditional economic/ industrial policies can no longer guarantee high growth and employment, certainly not for all regions and locations. Instead, both innovation and entrepreneurship policy have caught the attention of policymakers at different governmental levels, e.g. local, regional, national and supranational. Both are considered vital for economic growth and industrial renewal and rank high on government policy agendas. Also their combination, that is, innovative entrepreneurship, is a phenomenon that has become increasingly important, especially in the last decade.There are many examples of highly successful innovations stemming from small enterprises, which have revolutionized entire industries. Start-up companies, young entrepreneurs, university spin-offs, and small highly innovative firms, more often than not produce the major technological breakthroughs and innovations, leaving behind the R&D efforts and innovation strategies of large global corporations (European Commission, forthcoming). It has been argued that entrepreneurship takes on new importance in a knowledge economy because it serves as a key mechanism by which knowledge created in one organization can become commercialized in another (new) enterprise (Lindholm 1994, Lindholm Dahlstrand 1997, Audretsch 2004). New and small firms also serve as important vehicles for knowledge spill- overs when their ideas, competencies, products, strategies, innovations and technologies are acquired, accessed and commercialized by larger enterprises (Lindholm 1994, European Commission, forthcoming). Audretsch (2004) argues that small firms as the engine of innovative activity reflects changes in technology, globalization and other factors that have fundamentally altered the importance and process of innovation and technological change. SMEs and entrepreneurship continue to be a key source of dynamism, innovation and flexibility in advanced industrialized countries, as well as in emerging and developing economies (European Commission, forthcoming).Even so, the two areas of innovation policy and entrepreneurship policy, both relatively recent as distinct policy areas, are seldom integrated and the concept of “innovative entrepreneurship policy” has not yet fully emerged. For innovative entrepreneurship to be able to fully contribute to economic growth and development, its importance will need to be further acknowledged in innovation as well as entrepreneurship policies. This paper attempts to make a bridge between and integrate innovation and entrepreneurship policy. Since this task is not easily accomplished, the concept of an Innovative entrepreneurship policy will also be introduced in the discussion. We will start, in section 2, with an overview of innovation and entrepreneurship policies as derivatives of other policy areas, hinting at why it might be problematic to integrate an innovative entrepreneurship policy into existing policy areas. Insection 3, we will discuss innovative entrepreneurship, and innovative entrepreneurial firms, leading to some suggestions regarding the emergence of an Innovative entrepreneurship policy. In section 4, the paper will end with some conclusions and implications.