| 1. |
- Bank, Natasha, 1983-
(författare)
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Sustainability-Oriented Business Incubators
- 2020
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores the attraction, selection, and support in sustainability-oriented business incubators. Business incubators as hatcheries for start-ups are considered key tools to enhance job creation and strengthen regional economies. While the world population grows and consumption of natural resources increases, the ecosystem services decline. If these issues are not properly addressed, the economic, social, and environmental pressures that are growing in our societies will lead to disasters and threats to humankind. Green incubators can implement sustainability thinking and the related principles in the start-up community right from the beginning, and hence play a significant role in reorienting start-up businesses towards sustainability.This study shows the importance of making business incubators better known to their potential clients in order to increase visibility and attract more green tenants. The sustainability-oriented business incubators (SOBI), to have a better selection of tenants, need to attract more sustainable entrepreneurs in the first place. Moreover, the selection criteria affect the in-house atmosphere of the incubator, which in turn affects the attraction of more like-minded tenants to the incubator. In addition, word of mouth through partners and referrals by successfully graduated tenants, as well as expert management teams including coaches and consultants and their related networks and mediations, exert more influence on the attraction. In other words, the attraction is dependent both on the selection criteria and the support given to the tenants. To attract proper tenants, a rich local environment, regional and inter-regional collaboration, a well-planned, well-structured pre-incubation process, and credibility of incubators with managerial sustainability expertise and well-established networks are also essential.When it comes to the selection processes, different factors affect the selection criteria, including business incubators’ goal and agenda such as job creation, diversification of the local economy, utilization of vacant property, commercialization of research, investment as well as owner and sponsors (including public and private), physical characters such as age, size, and occupancy rates. Furthermore, incubators might have different selection strategies such as rigorous-vs-flexible as well as entrepreneur-vs-idea priorities. The initial ambition of SOBIs is to select business ideas that are primarily geared towards sustainability. However, the empirical data has shown that it is not always achievable to attract a sufficient number of green tenants to meet those criteria. The challenges, for example, could be due to economic cycles, specialization, and high-bar (i.e., eligibility) criteria, location limits, lack of sustainable-minded entrepreneurs, and the like.In recent years, increased awareness about sustainability issues and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as signals from green financiers, business owners, and other stakeholders, have forced many incubators to adjust their selection criteria to match sustainability requirements. However, empirical results show that the support given to tenants in green incubators has not been different from conventional ones. But more recently (especially during the past two-three years), institutional forces and the need for more legitimacy have led more and more incubators (even conventional ones) to change their mindset and provide more support towards sustainable business ideas. The conclusions of this study imply that business incubators need to strive for making sustainable entrepreneurs, not selecting them. In order to provide comprehensive sustainability-oriented support, SOBIs need to recruit sustainability experts and educate management teams as well as their tenants about sustainability issues.
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| 2. |
- Engzell, Jeanette, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
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PODCASTS AS A LEARNING METHOD IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
- 2023
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Ingår i: SEFI 2023 - 51st Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education: Engineering Education for Sustainability, Proceedings. - : European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). - 9782873520267 ; , s. 398-405
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Multimedia has been integrated in education the last 40 years but podcasts have more recently become popular. Since 2006 podcasts have become increasingly popular in Sweden and nowadays podcasts are used in all types of contexts but are yet to find a place in engineering education. Students do not acquire knowledge or solve problems in the same way. Using a mix of methods in teaching is therefore important if one has the ambition to democratize the learning processes and give students the same opportunity to learn. Traditionally, much of the university education has been based on lectures in classrooms and reading literature. During the pandemic, teachers switched to video lectures and online lectures. Even though all types of multimedia are involved in teaching today, podcasts have not become established as a learning method. This paper explores in what ways podcasts can be beneficial in engineering education. Specifically, the paper investigates what preferences students have on how podcasts for engineering education and how teachers effectively can design and develop podcasts in courses as a learning method. By addressing the gap of evidence on podcasts in engineering education, the findings contribute with effective solutions on how podcasts can be developed and implemented that will help students in their learning processes. © 2023 SEFI 2023 - 51st Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education: Engineering Education for Sustainability, Proceedings. All Rights Reserved.
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| 3. |
- Klofsten, Magnus, 1959-, et al.
(författare)
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Support and development of small and new firms in rural areas : a case study of three regional initiatives
- 2020
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Ingår i: SN Applied Sciences. - : Springer. - 2523-3963 .- 2523-3971. ; 2:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper is based on qualitative analysis and addresses the important topic of small business entrepreneurialism in rural areas and its special conditions and needs. Our aim is to present examples of and suggestions for how to encourage firm start-ups and the continuation possibly also the development and growth of existing firms. The paper is based on three cases that illustrate (1) challenges in the support system in rural areas, (2) various forms of support that could be used in rural areas, and (3) expectations that are eligible to put upon support activities designed for rural areas. The main findings are that (1) that successful support of rural businesses requires a critical mass of regional entrepreneurs, firms, and support actors, (2) diversity is critical, and the various actors must be coordinated to carry out the desired measures effectively, (3) expectations for growth and orientation of the firms must be realistic because broad support is more important than targeted support, and (4) we were able to show that a cross-boundary collaborative work culture that avoids both thought silos and business silos and places no value on prestige should pervade all areas of business support.
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| 4. |
- Mileros, Martin Daniel, 1976-
(författare)
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Mind Your Own Business : Understanding and characterizing value created by consumers in a digital economy
- 2020
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the context of what is commonly referred to as consumer-centric digital economy, personal data has become the new currency which is utilized by consumers to be granted access to seemingly “free apps” within so-called digital zero-price markets. Simultaneously, there are consumers, known as “content creators”, who can generate million-dollar revenues annually. The current understanding of how consumers create and capture value within this new digital economy is scarce and more research is needed to systematically build a basis for creating an understanding of value creation and capture in the consumer-centric digital economy, based on a consumer perspective. The purpose of this dissertation is consequently to explore how consumers create and capture value within a consumer-centric digital economy. The explorative study also serves to obtain an initial overview of the phenomenon and the widely dispersed literature which spans different research fields. The collected data constitute more than 500 articles in combination with empirical data collected from websites.Based on the current literature, central concepts related to consumer-centric digital economy are explained. These include for instance Web 2.0, user-generated content and the consumerto- business relationship. The different concepts are discussed in relation to each other and a trend analysis shows that these concepts are on the rise and have become increasingly popular.The results show that consumers within the digital economy may take different roles, and some create value as business-oriented consumers (i.e., consumers who have a commercial interest). For instance, they make a business out of their participation in the digital economy. Examples are YouTubers, bloggers or creators in virtual worlds such as Second Life. Another, probably larger category is characterized as traditional consumers, for instance they participate in the digital economy through their use of seemingly “free” apps but do not reap any direct monetary benefits. By sharing their personal data, they take part in value creation in a more passive way. The findings also indicate that the level of control, e.g. determined by whether or not value is created within the digital platform, may characterize the prerequisites for value capture. Based on this, a taxonomy for value creation and value capture by consumers in the digital economy is developed. The study also identifies different business model types for business-oriented consumers.
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| 5. |
- Norrman, Charlotte, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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COMICIR - COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIVE CHALLENGES FROM INDUSTRY AND RESEARCH
- 2023
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Ingår i: SEFI 2023 - 51st Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education: Engineering Education for Sustainability, Proceedings. - : European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). - 9782873520267 ; , s. 1025-1033
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- At Linköping university, a model to facilitate impact and bridge the gap between research, education, and business creation, has been developed. It is named “ComICIR”, which stands for Commercialization of Innovative Challenges from Industry and Research. The model allows researchers, firms, and students to work in a co-creation process that are built on the following five steps: (1) research validation, (2) idea generation, (3) idea validation, (4) idea evaluation and, (5) innovation strategy. In the paper, we describe the model and analyse how challenges and ideas could be developed and experientially based pedagogical approaches could be adjusted in order to benefit the regional ecosystem of research, education and industry and contribute to reaching increased impact of innovative ideas and ventures. Our main finding is that CBL is beneficial but requires close cooperation between teachers and innovation support actors. Flexibility is needed to fit the purpose of the course as well as the needs of the challenge providers. Hence, challenges need to be categorized and qualified to take into account the aim and scope of the challenge as well as its degree of development as this affects how the challenges should be written and treated to get the best outcome.
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