Knowledge-intensive university spin-off firms in South Africa: fragile network alignment?
SOURCE: Industry & Higher Education
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2008
TITLE AUTHOR(S): G.Kruss
KEYWORDS: INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCH NETWORKS, UNIVERSITIES
DEPARTMENT: Equitable Education and Economies (IED)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 5487
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/5204
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/5204
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2008
TITLE AUTHOR(S): G.Kruss
KEYWORDS: INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCH NETWORKS, UNIVERSITIES
DEPARTMENT: Equitable Education and Economies (IED)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 5487
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/5204
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/5204
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
This paper analyses the conditions for sustaining spin-off firms from University-based research in South Africa through follow-up-case studies of three high-technology networks, using a 'network alignment' approach. Commercialization failed in the first case because of a lack of interactive capability and an absence of networks between the university and the industrial sector. Initial success was short-lived for the second case, given misalignment between firm and market conditions and in the coordination of key functions in the firm. In the third and most successful case, there was misalignment between the firm and a key global supplier, impacting on networks between firm and market and threatening turnover and future viability. The degree of alignment in the South African national system of innovation is fragile, in that networks may exist but not sufficiently widely across the system, or they may not function effectively. Hence, as the empirical evidence suggests, it is difficult to sustain competitive spin-off firms.-
Related Research Outputs:
- Knowledge for developent: university-firm interaction in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Uganda: working papers
- Universities, innovation and inclusive development in Africa towards a research network
- Putting university-industry interaction into perspective: a differentiated view from inside South African universities
- Promotion of secondary industrial development & clustering in Mpumalanga stainless steel & chemical cluster: research report
- Shared and SAHARA (social aspects of HIV/AIDS research alliance)
- From racial liberalism to corporate authoritarianism: the Shell affair and the assault on academic freedom in South Africa
- Mozambique: the South Africans have arrived
- The politics of curriculum review and revision in South Africa
- Working partnerships: higher education, industry and innovation: government incentivisation of higher education-industry research partnerships in South Africa: an audit of THRIP and the Innovation Fund
- Overview of industrial policy
- Chasing credentials and mobility: private higher education in South Africa
- The focus of an undergraduate social science curriculum for Southern Africa: historical consciousness, human rights and social and development issues
- The promise of e-business for less developed countries (LDCs)
- Breaking barriers to higher education - industry research partnerships
- Harnessing innovation potential or a necessary evil?: institutional approaches to industry-higher education partnerships
- Legacy of apartheid prevails in research sector
- Special issue: Higher education-industry research partnerships and innovation in South Africa: introduction
- Financial or intellectual imperatives
- Human rights and academic freedom in Kenya's public universities: the case of the universities academic staff union
- Perceived HIV/AIDS impact among staff in tertiary institutions in the Eastern Cape, South Africa