Bio- and regenera- tive Medicine as an important growth Market

42 HHL RESEARCH REPORT 2012 innOvATiOn And EnTREPREnEuRSHiP 43
of 26-30, the US-universities are on one
hand not only engines of innovation
for their own population but also for
the global market . On the other hand,
the universities as magnets for the best
students, is important within their
own innovation system because they
attract these qualifications which are
necessary for growth and employment
through innovation .
Although the German universities are
able to attract a relatively high share
of the international student market, it
is not comparable with the role of the
U .S . universities . Maybe the German
universities have to learn how to earn
money from the foreign students as
well as to support them in staying and
founding companies in Germany after
their exams . This will help fill the gap of
demography which will be much more
deeper in Germany than in the U .S .
Conclusion
It is quite obvious now that universities
can no longer be regarded as only
providers of human resources, but
rather as incubators and network
hubs for new ideas and innovations .
Academic knowledge is transferred to
new products and processes through
many different channels such as the
patenting and licensing of inventions,
business development, or universityindustry
collaborations . Although there
is evidence of growing academic knowledge
commercialization, less is known
about whether the commercialization
of research takes place in universities in
a form that companies cannot replicate .
This is a rich context for many emerging
questions for both the academic
and practical world .
Internationalization Strategies
for German High-Tech Start-ups
As part of an empirical long-term study
of the financial and risk management
of German high-tech companies
Dorian Proksch, Research Assistant
at the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank
Chair for Innovation Management and
Entrepreneurship, conducts a special
analysis for internationalization behavior
of high-tech companies in the
early phase . The long term study uses
a comprehensive analysis of merged
documents and interviews with the
founding players of German early stage
funds . He uses his empirical findings
of the long-term study to find out the
In the early stage of the development of
newly founded technology based firms
(NTBF) intensive non-financial support
is often required in order to cope with the
vast number of existing restrictions and
risks . In this stage the additional value
created by Venture Capital Funds (VCF) –
beyond from covering capital requirements
– is mainly based on management
support and a balanced risk management .
So far empirical academic studies of the
early stage financing are mostly crosssectional
and look at a set of investments
based just on the notion of the
investment manager in charge . There is
a lack of longitudinal studies more objectively
considering the decisions and
characteristics of a set of investments
factors which hinder or foster the early
internationalization in the early stage of
high-tech startups . Mr . Proksch answers
the question if there is a correlation between
the international experience and
the networking of the founders team
and the degree of international involvement
of high-tech startups . Mr . Proksch
also takes into account the uniqueness
of the business concept and the influence
of the risk-bearing capacity to
inter nationalization . The results can
help investors to better determine the
chance of internationalization of a hightech
company .
Strategic Management in Early Stage
Venture Capital Funds
crowdFunding and crowdinveStMent
Crowdfunding is one of the recent
trends regarding the financing of
social, artistic and commercial projects .
Since 2003, there has been a great rise
of crowdfunding platforms in the U .S
and Europe . It became very popular
through internet platforms like kiva .
org or kickstarter .com in the English
speaking world and developed very fast
in Germany .
Crowdfunding is a method to earn capital
through masses . Using an internet
platform, a wide range of people can
be addressed to collect money for the
project . It can be differentiated between
projects with natural incentives and
without incentives . Also start-ups
have been gaining capital over a crowd
using the methods of crowdfunding .
But it never seems to fit to the needs
of a young start-up . This changed with
new emerging forms of platforms like
seedmatch .de or innovestment .de in
Germany . Start-ups now have a supply
which seems to fit their specific needs .
The platforms are mediators between
investors and young start-up firms
with the aim of closing the financing
gap in early stages through supplying
over time . The newness of the examination
by Dorian Proksch rests on analyzing
VCFs’ original deal documentation
at the source and surveying investment
managers and NTBF only regarding
those pieces of information, which cannot
be found in the VCFs’ files . For this
examination Mr . Proksch wants to use
a framework of accepted and known
perspectives which are seen as success
factors for new venture creation . These
factors are in the fields of interpersonal
relationships, networks, characteristics
of technology and management support
by an equity capital provider . The study
by Mr . Proksch highlights a conceptual
framework of strategic management in
early stage VCF .
high-risk shares to interested investors .
The incentive here is clearly monetary .
This new form of Crowdfunding can be
called Crowdinvesting . There are essential
advantages in Crowdinvesting,
which prompt questions in the usability
of it for start-ups . Especially
the problem of a failing investment or
the high probability of copying one’s
business idea when submitting the
whole business plan to an undefined
mass of investors are not yet totally
discussed by the academic community .
These problems will be addressed in a
research project by Anja Hagedorn .
ScHuMpeter Junior proFeSSorSHip For
entrepreneurSHip and tecHnologY tranSFer
creating an incubator
for new Business ideas
Since March 1, 2012, Dr. Vivek K.
Velamuri is the Schumpeter Junior
Professor for Entrepreneurship and
Technology Transfer at HHL.
This junior professorship is kindly
sponsored by the Leipzig Foundation
for Innovation and Technology Transfer.
Dr. Velamuri will strengthen HHL’s
profile as an international business
school and incubator for new business
ideas and start-ups in the Leipzig innovation
region. His research focus is on
hybrid value creation, i.e. the process
of generating additional value by combining
products and services. He is
currently leading a team at HHL, which
is responsible for developing a detailed
concept for the EXIST competition.
HHL is the only business school that
was voted into the second round of the
EXIST – Culture of Entrepreneurship
program. What do you have to do to be
successful in this competition?
Dr. velamuri: To score in this nationwide
competition one has to provide a
comprehensive plan how to foster the
entrepreneurial spirit not only in the
university but also in the local region .
EXIST calls for a holistic entrepreneurship
concept that incorporates the entire
organization – including the Dean,
the faculty, the students, and the staff .
They all should truly live the entrepreneurial
spirit . Additionally, HHL wants
to facilitate different research institutions
from the Leipzig innovative region
(e .g . University of Leipzig, Fraunhofer
MOEZ, HTWK Leipzig) in commercializing
their research . Here, HHL wants to
contribute with its profound expertise
in facilitating various start-ups .
By this means, we also want to
strengthen HHL’s profile as one of the
world’s leading entrepreneurial business
schools . Over the next two months,
we will analyze best-practice examples
from entrepreneurial universities in
Germany, Europe and the U .S . more
intensively .
What implication does the EXIST competition
have on the research at HHL?
Dr. velamuri: We want to channel funds
from the EXIST competition directly to
conducting state-of-the-art research in
the field of entrepreneurship . In particular
we would like to focus on aspects of
entrepreneurial finance and marketing .
This will complement research conducted
by the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank
Chair and my own chair .
How does EXIST affect the teaching at
your business school?
Dr. velamuri: Entrepreneurship is a
solid component of the curriculum
as a compulsory or elective subject
in the full-time and part-time M .Sc .
and MBA programs . The business
plan class stands out in particular
in this respect since it is considered
an early incubator for start-ups .
Moreover, the programs at HHL
include an internship which, on
average, every fourth student
completes in a start-up business .
Our classes are enriched by regular guest
lectures given by founders and investors
. The new series of lectures entitled
“Leipzig Entrepre neurship Lecture”,
which is open to visitors, examines
current entrepreneurship topics from
the perspective of the economy and
research, e .g . women entrepreneurship
and social entrepreneurship .
Glossary
exiSt
The “EXIST – Existenzgründungen aus der Wissenschaft”
(“Start-ups from Science”) program has funded
measures and projects since 1998 to establish the topic
of starting businesses in universities and reThe “EXIST
– Existenzgründungen aus der Wissenschaft” (“Startups
from Science”) program has funded measures and
projects since 1998 to establish the topic of starting
businesses in universities and re up University”)
competition, the Federal Ministry of Economics and
Technology (BMWi) provides almost EUR 46 million
over the course of seven years for challenging projects
at universities. The EXIST program is co-financed by a
grant from the European Social Fund (ESF).
Does EXIST give new impulses to the
theory-practice transfer?
Dr. velamuri: Funds will also be used to
build up a physical interaction platform
for people, ideas, and technology in
the region . With this, HHL supports
personal and professional independence
in a cross-subject and cross-institute
manner by offering workshops/seminars
and start-up coaching sessions .
ScHuMpeter Junior
proFeSSorSHip For
entrepreneurSHip and
tecHnologY tranSFer
cHair donor
Leipzig foundation for innovation and
Technology Transfer
cHairHolder
dr. vivek K. velamuri
core coMpetencieS/
reSearcH intereSt
• solving managerial problems faced
by organizations with a focus on
entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship,
and technology transfer
• focus on different facets of hybrid
value creation
• open innovation
• research on the phenomenon of
social entrepreneurship.
contact
www.hhl.de/entrepreneurship