Recent advances in research have shed light on why and how community-based enterprises (CBEs) emerge. Nevertheless, little is known about the underlying factors that contribute to their success over time. This lack of attention is intriguing, given CBEs’ widespread proliferation as an instrument for socioeconomic development. We contribute to the CBE literature by applying and extending socioemotional wealth (SEW) to the CBE context. Our findings demonstrate how the presence of community socioemotional wealth (CSEW) enables CBEs to achieve enduring success. Beyond the presence of SEW's five traditional dimensions, we identify two new dimensions (empowerment and holistic mission) unique to CBEs. When jointly present, these seven dimensions explain how CSEW creates a favorable terrain for the CBE to succeed. © The Author(s) 2024.

Fundación Inteligentemente Feliz (Foundation Intelligently Happy) was established in 2017 with the aim of providing assistance to post-war victims in Colombia. The Foundation created a health services program titled 21 Days of Change (21 dias de cambio) that offers psychological assistance to victims and provides them with an app or a notebook with a printed guide. Currently, the Foundation’s main customers are Columbian government offices that support mental health services for around 3,000 women living in rural areas of Colombia. The case focuses on the process of establishing the company and its business model. More specifically, it illustrates how the founders are using the lean start-up approach and its methods to better understand the needs of user groups and align to the Foundation’s mission and goals. The case also illustrates how the activities of this social enterprise are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This doctoral thesis addresses the technology transfer process in rural developing economies. Technology transfer refers to the movement of physical artifacts and knowledge from a transferor (e.g. a university) to a recipient (e.g. a cooperative or a producer). Many rural developing economies depend on rural enterprises engaged in small-scale production. These enterprises usually have limited market reach, inadequate financial margins, and low value added products. In this context, technology transfer commonly features large information and knowledge asymmetry between the transferors and recipients, the recipients’ dependence on government financial support, and the recipients’ underdeveloped business skills. Despite the importance of technology transfer for production improvements by enterprises in rural economies, little is known about how the two sides interact when technologies to fit the small-scale production context are transferred. To address this knowledge gap, this thesis focuses on how rural enterprises adapt and use technologies that are collaboratively developed with universities with the support of governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Empirically, the thesis analyses technology transfer aimed at improving silk, fish, and coffee production in Cauca, a region in Colombia. The thesis uses Situated Learning Theory, action research, and case study methodology. The thesis shows that i) intermediaries broker and facilitate (organise) the interaction between universities and cooperatives and rural enterprises; ii) there are seven features that enable technology transfer in rural developing economies and iii) ‘systems’ of technology transfer evolve in rural developing economies through analysis of problem formulation and problem solving as the mechanisms.

Drawing on rich longitudinal data covering a period of more than 15 years, our study highlights specific affective and non-financial components of the entrepreneurial process in the context of community- based entrepreneurship (CBE). Without an understanding of the concrete role of the community in exit, re-entry, and growth, community members of such ventures may lack the awareness and resources to engage in a perennial venture. Despite the importance of community ventures in fostering economic development and growth, little is known about the antecedents, context and processes of entrepreneurial exit and re-entry in the realm of CBE. We, therefore, address this gap through an in-depth case study of a community-based initiative in the Cauca region of Colombia. We investigate how three distinct cultural communities reach successful collaboration after overcoming an initial organizational death. Our findings illustrate that exit was the result of several factors including the lack of a strong sense of community identity. However, over time the community members developed a solid sense of belonging, trust and reliance as they tackled difficult events such as exit and market struggles on one hand and engaged in positive community building events on the other hand. Moreover, the sense of belonging that the three different communities developed are comparable to a unique extended family business, whereby the non-financial aspects of the enterprise meet the communities’ affective needs. We term this affective component “community socio-emotional wealth”. © 2017 Academy of Management Powered by Atypon® Literatum

This paper integrates the contributions from different branches of the technology transfer literature to identify enablers driving the transfer of intermediate or appropriate technologies to recipients in rural areas of developing economies. An in-depth analysis of the literature shows that many enablers identified in the literature focus on high technology transfers and are of limited relevance in the context of rural enterprises. Other important enablers in this specific setting are ignored or insufficiently considered. This paper proposes a framework comprising a specific set of enablers that facilitates technology transfer in rural enterprises in developing regional economies. © 2017 Deycy Janeth Sánchez Preciado, Björn Claes and Nicholas Theodorakopoulos.

From an innovation perspective, collaboration between the different actors in a national innovation system (NIS) is imperative. Our concern is whether the Triple Helix idea of collaboration between universities, industry and government as conditional for innovation capacities is possible to estimate on the basis of data. The present paper therefore uses the Global Innovation Index 2013 and the Global Competitiveness Index 2013 for that purpose. The included variables relate to the characteristics of universities, industries, government and innovation. Using these data for 128 countries, this paper suggests a model that demonstrates, by the use of linear regressions, that there are significant statistical effects of university, industry and governmental variables on University-Industry-Government collaboration (UIG). Likewise, results indicate effects of the UIG collaboration on the capacity of innovation. Our results thus confirm most, but no all, implications of the Triple Helix hypothesis in national innovation systems. Copyright: The Authors, 2015. All Rights Reserved.

In this study we focus the enhancement of experience of the participants in development projects with the specific purpose to identify mechanisms to address the participant’s technical level. We used an interventionist approach exploring two mechanisms (the knowledge truck and ambassadors) for knowledge transfer. A fish-producing regional network in the rural region of Cauca, Colombia, is used as case. The study contributes to technology transfer literature by expanding our knowledge about barriers created by low technical knowledge among technology receivers. Further the study contributes to the bottom-up approach to technology transfer.

Technology intermediaries are seen as potent vehicles for addressing perennial problems in transferring technology from university to industry in developed and developing countries. This paper examines what constitutes effective user-end intermediation in a low-technology, developing economy context, which is an under-researched topic. The social learning in technological innovation framework is extended using situated learning theory in a longitudinal instrumental case study of an exemplar technology intermediation programme. The paper documents the role that academic-related research and advisory centres can play as intermediaries in brokering, facilitating and configuring technology, against the backdrop of a group of small-scale pisciculture businesses in a rural area of Colombia. In doing so, it demonstrates how technology intermediation activities can be optimized in the domestication and innofusion of technology amongst end-users. The design components featured in this instrumental case of intermediation can inform policy making and practice relating to technology transfer from university to rural industry. Future research on this subject should consider the intermediation components put forward, as well as the impact of such interventions, in different countries and industrial sectors. Such research would allow for theoretical replication and help improve technology domestication and innofusion in different contexts, especially in less-developed countries. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

This paper aims to explore how social capital facilitates the process of social innovation in community-based enterprises. We draw insights from two case studies of APROPESCA and CORSEDA in the El Cauca region of Colombia that engage local rural communities in trout fishing and silk production respectively. We draw upon qualitative responses collected through multiple methods including semi-structured interviews with organisational and external informants, workshops engaging local communities and participant observations.

Findings of our study illustrate that where social capital of local communities and institutions involved were not developed, government interventions failed to ensure the sustainability of the CBE.  In contrast, when strong social capital was developed and maintained through active participation of community members the CBE’s viability and economic success were ensured. Our findings have implications for development initiatives aiming to empower local communities and bring about sustainable development.

Objective:

We assess the applicability and relevance of KFs for the transfer of technology to rural enterprises through university – industry – government (UIG) collaboration in developing economies.

Prior work:

We build on prior literature pertaining key factors (KFs) for the technology transfer by Sanchez Preciado, Claes & Theodorakopoulos, 2013 and Theodorakopoulos, Sanchez Preciado & Bennet, 2012.  Specifically we evaluate the importance of technology transfer factors such as i) the level of absorptive capacity developed, ii) the amount of profit returns from the transferred technologies, iii) the degree to which the organization has overcome cultural and geographic factors, iv) the market value of the technologies, v) the existence of a technology broker and vi) the sophistication of the knowledge infrastructure in the collaborative triad of industry, university and government

Approach:

Using a qualitative research approach, we use the theoretical lenses of institutional theory and situated learning theory to assess these KFs in the context of two small-scale rural enterprises respectively involved in pisciculture (fish farming) and coffee production in the Cauca region of Colombia. These two enterprises have been in business for more than 15 years, have well-established internal and external networks and constitute exemplar cases of social and economic growth and organisational innovation.

Results:

Our study validates the KFs identified by Sanchez Preciado et al (2013) and demonstrates how these factors are influenced by the social capital (Coleman, 2001) generated in the process of transferring technology between the actors.

Implications:

We extend the work of authors like Tortoriello and Krackhardt (2010), who argue that spanning organizational boundaries (bridging ties) has a positive impact on the generation of innovations.

Value:

The contribution of our paper is twofold. First we make a contribution to the literature on situated learning by applying this theory in a research context that goes beyond a single functional area to a generic organizational level consisting of individuals with different functional or cultural backgrounds. Second, our paper contributes to the literature on the transfer of technology through UIG collaboration in that it focuses on low-tech and organisational technologies rather than the high-tech solutions generally discussed in that body of literature. Also, it investigates KFs for technology transfer to small rural enterprises in developing countries rather than to more advanced organizations in more developed countries mostly discussed elsewhere.