- •Executive Summary
- •Box K1.1. Why is innovation important?
- •Box K1.2. Incremental and radical innovation
- •Figure 1.1. Driving forces of innovation
- •Table 1.1. Innovation style at different stages of the firm
- •Table 1.2. Closed innovation versus open innovation principles
- •Table 1.3. The benefits of collaboration
- •Figure 1.2. Structure of the national innovation system
- •Box K1.3. Public-private partnerships for innovation
- •Table 1.4. Options for improving the functioning of an innovation system
- •Box K1.4. The public sector role as coordinator
- •Box K1.5. Innovation Agencies and Innovation Councils
- •Executive Summary
- •A. The importance of framework conditions
- •Box K2.1. Entrepreneurship as a driver of innovation
- •B. Local and regional dimensions
- •Box K2.2. Are local factors still relevant?
- •Box K2.3. Codified and tacit knowledge
- •C. The role of the business environment
- •Box C2.3. Good practices in company formation
- •Table 2.3. Basic principles in the organization and delivery of business services
- •Box K2.4. What is R&D and why it matters?
- •Table 2.4. Principles of designing tax incentives for R&D in firms
- •Figure 2.2. Eligibility of UK companies for R&D tax incentives
- •Table 2.5. Direct funding and tax incentives for R&D
- •Figure 2.3. Funding requirements lifecycle
- •Table 2.6. Taxonomy of types of support for early-stage companies
- •Executive Summary
- •A. Identifying industry-science linkages and the forms of public support
- •Figure 3.1. How the public and private sector can join forces in support of innovation
- •Table 3.1. Different categories and forms of industry-science relations
- •B. Supporting industry-science linkages at different stages of the innovation process
- •Table 3.2. Industry-science relations (ISR) and the institutional setting in public science
- •Table 3.3. Responsible Partnership Guidelines for Collaborative Research
- •Table 3.4. The types of technology that lead to spin-outs or established firm licenses
- •Executive Summary
- •A. Innovation support institutions and firms’ innovation activities
- •Table 4.1. Types of innovation support institutions
- •B. Business incubators
- •Box K4.1. What is a business incubator?
- •Box K4.2. Pre-incubation
- •Table 4.2. Performance evaluation: definition of key evaluation issues
- •Table 4.3. Performance evaluation: Definition of key performance evaluation indicators
- •C. Science and technology parks
- •Box K4.4. Different definitions of science parks
- •Table 4.5. Four science park models: Main features
- •Table 4.6. Profile of a typical North American university research park
- •D. Innovation clusters
- •Box K4.5. The main features of innovation clusters
- •Table 4.7. An illustrative framework for cluster monitoring, benchmarking and evaluation
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IV. RAISING THE EFFICIENCY OF INNOVATION SUPPORT
INSTITUTIONS
Executive Summary
•Innovation support institutions are public, private, or public-private institutions that provide support to start-up innovating entrepreneurs in commercializing their innovations and bringing them to the market.
•Some institutions provide public financial and/or in-kind support to start-up ventures. However, this support is of a one-off nature: at a certain point of time firms are expected to “grow up” and take care of themselves; those that fail to achieve financial viability within the established time limits will exit the market. All innovation support institutions provide business services such as coaching, consulting, managerial and administrative services, etc. to innovating entrepreneurs.
•Another important role of these institutions is in facilitating linkages between the potential key stakeholders of a project. They help in connectivity and networking both within the institution but also with the outside environment.
•A business incubator is a company or facility that provides physical space and a number of services to new businesses, helping them through the earlier stages of their development. Incubators provide access to business support, access to finance, management coaching as well as other business and administrative services to assist in the formation and growth of companies. The expected outcome is to reach a stage of developing a revenue-generating company or one that is ready to attract investment for development.
•There are a number of models for incubation. Full incubation offers a wide package of services that are aimed at increasing the chance of success of developing a company. The package may cover not only ordinary business services but support strategies that are tailored to developing the companies with the greatest potential.
•Any tenant start-up only spends a limited time in the incubator and after going through the incubation process the company should be prepared to leave the incubator and start self-sustained performance in the market. Incubators usually have their specific graduation criteria which may include the reaching of certain size and profitability but also a maximum tenure at the incubator.
•Science parks are property-based ventures providing R&D facilities to technologyand science-based companies. Compared to business incubators, science and technology parks tend to be much larger in size, often spanning across large territories and housing various entities from corporate, government, and university labs to big and small companies.