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Technology evolution of an academic spin-off – A case study
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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en
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94
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Abstract
This thesis is a case study focusing on evolution and emergence of a core technology of an academic spin-off. The technological evolution is studied by analyzing the progression and changes in scientific career and research interests of the founder/innovator of an academic spin-off case company from the beginning of the founder/innovators’s career in academic world as a doctoral student up to and beyond the founding of the academic spin-off. Particularly, the scientific publications published by the founder/innovator are analyzed by content and thematic analysis and the results compared both with each other and to the present situation of the case company to reveal the evolutionary path leading to the core technology of the academic spin-off and the accompanying change of focus from purely academic research interests to establishing a commercial venture.
The results revealed that evolution of the core technology of the case company and its conversion from academia to business follows stages of creative process. Accordingly, the stages of creative process, Preparation, Incubation, Intimation, Illumination, and Verification, could be identified and mapped to the career progression and development of research topics of the founder/innovator of the case company. Therefore, stage model of creativity appears to be a potential tool to describe and model also the formation process of the core technology of academic spin-offs at least in some cases. Accordingly, supportive actions tailored according to known characteristics of each stage of the creative process could potentially be used to better support academic spin-off formation at different phases of their technological development. However, it is acknowledged that further studies to validate the findings and to further refine the conclusions and potential supportive actions are needed. It is hoped that this study provides an example and encouragement for such further studies focusing on the evolution and formation of the core technology of academic spin-offs.