IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/scippl/v44y2017i5p631-644..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Commercialising university inventions for sustainability—a case study of (non-)intermediating ‘cleantech’ at Aalto University

Author

Listed:
  • Paula Kivimaa
  • Wouter Boon
  • Riina Antikainen

Abstract

The challenge to transform towards more sustainable societies requires action on multiple levels, including commercialisation of inventions created in universities. We examine intermediation in the pre-commercialisation phase of cleantech inventions developed at Aalto University, Finland, focusing on the activities of a university innovation intermediary, Aalto Centre for Entrepreneurship (ACE), and how it operationalises the sustainability aims of the university. The roles of ACE are discussed in the context of the university innovation ecosystem and through three cases of cleantech inventions. Surprisingly, we find that ACE does not include any ways to operationally integrate sustainability. The consideration of sustainability in commercialisation projects is case specific and fully dependent on other actors. As a result we propose people- and process-oriented alternatives of how sustainability could be integrated into university innovation support functions. We also propose that innovation ecosystems should be broadened to include public actors for the benefits of co-creating for sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Paula Kivimaa & Wouter Boon & Riina Antikainen, 2017. "Commercialising university inventions for sustainability—a case study of (non-)intermediating ‘cleantech’ at Aalto University," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 631-644.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:scippl:v:44:y:2017:i:5:p:631-644.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/scipol/scw090
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Siegel, Donald S. & Waldman, David & Link, Albert, 2003. "Assessing the impact of organizational practices on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices: an exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 27-48, January.
    2. Clarysse, Bart & Wright, Mike & Bruneel, Johan & Mahajan, Aarti, 2014. "Creating value in ecosystems: Crossing the chasm between knowledge and business ecosystems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1164-1176.
    3. Youtie, Jan & Shapira, Philip, 2008. "Building an innovation hub: A case study of the transformation of university roles in regional technological and economic development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1188-1204, September.
    4. James Stewart & Sampsa Hyysalo, 2008. "Intermediaries, Users And Social Learning In Technological Innovation," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(03), pages 295-325.
    5. Morgan Meyer & Matthew Kearnes, 2013. "Introduction to special section: Intermediaries between science, policy and the market," Post-Print hal-00850565, HAL.
    6. Gregory Trencher & Masaru Yarime & Kes B. McCormick & Christopher N. H. Doll & Steven B. Kraines, 2014. "Beyond the third mission: Exploring the emerging university function of co-creation for sustainability," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 151-179.
    7. Bozeman, Barry & Rimes, Heather & Youtie, Jan, 2015. "The evolving state-of-the-art in technology transfer research: Revisiting the contingent effectiveness model," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 34-49.
    8. Morgan Meyer & Matthew Kearnes, 2013. "Introduction to special section: Intermediaries between science, policy and the market," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 423-429, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Taheri, Mozhdeh & van Geenhuizen, Marina, 2016. "Teams' boundary-spanning capacity at university: Performance of technology projects in commercialization," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 31-43.
    2. Albats, Ekaterina & Alexander, Allen T. & Cunningham, James A., 2022. "Traditional, virtual, and digital intermediaries in university-industry collaboration: exploring institutional logics and bounded rationality," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    3. Christopher S. Hayter & Andrew J. Nelson & Stephanie Zayed & Alan C. O’Connor, 2018. "Conceptualizing academic entrepreneurship ecosystems: a review, analysis and extension of the literature," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 1039-1082, August.
    4. Schaeffer, Paola Rücker & Guerrero, Maribel & Fischer, Bruno Brandão, 2021. "Mutualism in ecosystems of innovation and entrepreneurship: A bidirectional perspective on universities’ linkages," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 184-197.
    5. Xie Kaiji & Antonio Crupi & Alberto Minin & Fabrizio Cesaroni, 2022. "Team boundary-spanning activities and performance of technology transfer organizations: evidence from China," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 33-62, February.
    6. Véronique Schaeffer & Sıla Öcalan-Özel & Julien Pénin, 2020. "The complementarities between formal and informal channels of university–industry knowledge transfer: a longitudinal approach," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 31-55, February.
    7. Mario BENASSI & Matteo LANDONI & Francesco RENTOCCHINI, 2017. "University Management Practices and Academic Spin-offs," Departmental Working Papers 2017-11, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    8. Christopher S. Hayter, 2016. "A trajectory of early-stage spinoff success: the role of knowledge intermediaries within an entrepreneurial university ecosystem," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 633-656, October.
    9. Nicola Francesco Dotti & André Spithoven, 2017. "Spatial perspectives on knowledge brokers: Evidence from Brussels," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(10), pages 2203-2222, October.
    10. Siegel, Donald & Bogers, Marcel L.A.M. & Jennings, P. Devereaux & Xue, Lan, 2023. "Technology transfer from national/federal labs and public research institutes: Managerial and policy implications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    11. Ranga, Marina & Hoareau, Cecile & Durazzi, Niccolo & Etzkowitz, Henry & Marcucci, Pamela & Usher, Alex, 2013. "Study on university-business cooperation in the US," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 55424, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Mónica Ramos-Mejía & Alejandro Balanzo, 2018. "What It Takes to Lead Sustainability Transitions from the Bottom-Up: Strategic Interactions of Grassroots Ecopreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-20, July.
    13. Michael J. Hall, 2022. "New technology transfer metrics for the National Institute of Standards and Technology," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(5), pages 1573-1583, October.
    14. Paola Rucker Schaeffer & Bruno Fischer & Sergio Queiroz, 2018. "Beyond Education: The Role of Research Universities in Innovation Ecosystems," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 12(2), pages 50-61.
    15. Good, Matthew & Knockaert, Mirjam & Soppe, Birthe & Wright, Mike, 2019. "The technology transfer ecosystem in academia. An organizational design perspective," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 82, pages 35-50.
    16. Svenja Keele, 2019. "Consultants and the business of climate services: implications of shifting from public to private science," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 9-26, November.
    17. Miller, Fiona A. & Lehoux, Pascale, 2020. "The innovation impacts of public procurement offices: The case of healthcare procurement," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(7).
    18. Dieuwke Lamers & Marc Schut & Laurens Klerkx & Piet van Asten, 2017. "Compositional dynamics of multilevel innovation platforms in agricultural research for development," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 44(6), pages 739-752.
    19. Shiri M. Breznitz & Qiantao Zhang, 0. "Determinants of graduates’ entrepreneurial activity," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-18.
    20. Clayton, Paige & Lanahan, Lauren & Nelson, Andrew, 2022. "Dissecting diffusion: Tracing the plurality of factors that shape knowledge diffusion," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:scippl:v:44:y:2017:i:5:p:631-644.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/spp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.