Corporate Venture Capital and Firms' Innovative Capabilities
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sussex
Department Name: Sch of Business Management & Economics
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Laura Toschi (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Mura M
(2021)
The role of geographical scales in sustainability transitions: An empirical investigation of the European industrial context
in Ecological Economics
Toschi L
(2019)
Entrepreneurial Teams: An Input-Process-Outcome Framework
in Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship
Munari F
(2014)
Do patents affect VC financing? Empirical evidence from the nanotechnology sector
in International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
Fini R
(2016)
Academic logic and corporate entrepreneurial intentions: A study of the interaction between cognitive and institutional factors in new firms
in International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship
Munari F
(2015)
Assessing the impact of public venture capital programmes in the United Kingdom: Do regional characteristics matter?
in Journal of Business Venturing
Munari F
(2018)
The University as a Venture Capitalist? Gap Funding Instruments for Technology Transfer
in Technological Forecasting & Social Change
Munari F
(2014)
Running ahead in the nanotechnology gold rush. Strategic patenting in emerging technologies
in Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Giuri P
(2019)
The strategic orientation of universities in knowledge transfer activities
in Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Munari F
(2018)
The university as a venture capitalist? Gap funding instruments for technology transfer
in Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Munari F
(2016)
Financing technology transfer: assessment of university-oriented proof-of-concept programmes
in Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
| Description | ALMA IDEA Grant Senior |
| Amount | € 20,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | University of Bologna |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Italy |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 01/2020 |
| Description | FinKT Project |
| Organisation | University of Bologna |
| Department | Department of Management |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Development of reports and papers with the goal to analyze the legal and institutional context and the financial instruments that facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology from universities and public research centers to industry in Europe. The project focuses on the analysis of different forms of partnerships between universities/research centers and financial institutions, and on the assessment of innovative financial instruments dedicated to the commercialization of research, such as university seed funds or IP funds. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Development of reports and papers with the goal to analyze the legal and institutional context and the financial instruments that facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology from universities and public research centers to industry in Europe. The project focuses on the analysis of different forms of partnerships between universities/research centers and financial institutions, and on the assessment of innovative financial instruments dedicated to the commercialization of research, such as university seed funds or IP funds. |
| Impact | Federico M., Sobrero M., Toschi L.: "Bridging the University Funding Gap: Determinants and Consequences of University Seed Funds and Proof-of-Concept Programs in Europe" Federico M., Pasquini M., Toschi L.: "From the lab to the stock market? An analysis of university-oriented seed funds in Europe" |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Market and non-market mechanisms for the exchange and diffusion of innovation: when do they work, when they do not work, and why should we care |
| Organisation | University of Bologna |
| Department | Department of Management |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Development of papers on the use of financial mechanisms to support the development of technologies by academic spin-offs. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Development of papers on different mechanisms to diffuse innovation. |
| Impact | Munari F. Sobrero M. Toschi L. "Bridging the University Funding Gap: Determinants and Consequences of University Seed Funds and Proof-of-Concept Programs in Europe". Abstract: The limited availability of private funding sources to support technology transfer activities represents a major barrier to the effective commercialization of university technologies. This working paper analyzes the key determinants of use of financial instruments by universities - such as seed funds and proof-of-concept programs - to address such funding gaps. Using data from a survey of technology transfer office managers in European universities, the authors detail the antecedents of the presence of such instruments at the university level and their perceived effectiveness. The findings in turn have notable policy implications. Munari F., Pasquini M., Toschi L. "From the lab to the stock market? The characteristics and impact of university-oriented seed funds in Europe" Abstract: This work investigates the role of university and PRO-oriented seed funds (USFs)-VC funds with an explicit mission to make investments in academic spin-offs and support technology transfer-as instruments for addressing funding gaps and facilitating the commercialization of academic technologies. We first offer an overview of USFs in Europe, highlighting their heterogeneity and principal characteristics. Second, we exploit a unique data set of 1,497 start-ups (including 733 USF-backed start-ups and another 764 start-ups backed by other VC funds) to analyze how USF-backed companies perform in terms of exit rates, staging, and syndication levels when compared with non-USF-backed companies. Empirical evidence suggests that USF-backed companies perform better in staging and syndication but worse in exit rates. Moreover, our analyses show that, within the group of USF-backed companies, the ones that can attract more follow-on funding and investors are those financed by USFs that are internally managed by a universities/PROs and are linked to universities with high scientific rankings. |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Mechanical storage for household renewables for the Climate KIC PathFinder |
| Organisation | University of Bologna |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Business model of a low cost mechanical storage for photovoltaics systems in residential buildings. A value proposition index has been defined in order to state whether mechanical storage outperforms chemical storage and at which conditions (location, cost, subsidies). |
| Collaborator Contribution | Development of a prototype of the mechanical storage |
| Impact | Definition of the business model for the mechanical technology and test of feasibility |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | New paper on CVC based on new data from Thomsone One |
| Organisation | University of Minnesota |
| Department | Carlson School of Management |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A paper on Corporate Venture Capital using new data from Thomsone One is in finalization with the collaboration of Shaker Zahra and Russell Funk (both at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota) and Rosa Grimaldi (Department of Management, University of Bologna). |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners have helped in the creation of the new dataset and framing of the theoretical part of the paper. |
| Impact | A paper on CVC. In this paper we analyze the strategic use of Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) by exploring how the diversification strategies of the parent firm influence her CVC portfolio strategies. We examine both a market and a technology perspective in order to take into considerations possible differences (in terms of portfolio choices) between the two dimensions. Using panel data from a sample of 112 US public corporate investors (1996-2006) across multiple industries, the paper shows that technological diversification of the parent firm is related to her portfolio composition (in terms of technological diversification) of venture companies in a U-shaped relationship. However, for corporations operating in diversified markets a positive linear relation is found. We also find that the relatedness between the portfolio of ventures as a whole and the parent firm has a negative influence on portfolio diversification, as expected. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Progress-TT |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Development of a survey and best practices on topics related to technology transfer by European Universities. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Development of data, reports, capacity building model on topics related to technology transfer by European Universities. |
| Impact | Reports: descritpion of the aim, methodology, results for each semester of the project Papers: - Munari F., Toschi L. "The intersection between capacity building and finance", book chapter for the book by Basso A., Granieri M. "Capacity Building in Technology Transfer. The European experience" - Bolzani D., Munari F., Rasmussen E., Toschi L. Technology Transfer Office as Providers of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Education Technovation (I round) Giuri P., Munari F., Scandura A., Toschi L. The strategic orientation of universities in knowledge transfer activities. Technological Forecasting and Social Change (I round) - Munari F., Sobrero M., Toschi L. The University as a Venture Capitalist? Gap Funding Instruments accepted for Technology Transfer Special Issue on Technological Forecasting and Social Change |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Responsible of Integrated Technology for Electric Mobility (TIME) for the Climate KIC |
| Organisation | University of Bologna |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The objective of my team is to define the business of a retrofit project of electric cars in order to define the market, identify the main elements in the supply chain and in their respective roles and evaluate the integration with other complementary initiatives present in the market, such as use of renewable sources for electric cars. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners for the TIME RESEARCH project has realized a prototype of the technology and study the diffusion of this technology into the market. |
| Impact | Development of a viable Business Model based on Canvas (BMC) or similar template for scaling up the TIME project to a demonstrator stage |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | 1st Workshop on Financing Knowledge Transfer in Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The workshop has the aim to present the main results obtained after the first year of activity of the Finkt (Financing Knowledge Transfer in Europe) project of the University of Bologna discussing with academics and practitioners in the field. At the end of the workshop, several feedbacks have been gathered in order to improve the preliminary outputs and new topics of interest for the related community have been identified. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://finkt.unibo.it/events/workshop-financing-knowledge-transfer-in-europe/ |
| Description | 2nd Workshop on Financing Knowledge Transfer in Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The workshop has the aim to present the intermediate results obtained after the first two years of activity of the Finkt (Financing Knowledge Transfer in Europe) project of the University of Bologna discussing with academics and practitioners in the field. At the end of the workshop, several feedbacks have been gathered in order to improve the outputs. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://finkt.unibo.it/events/workshop-financing-knowledge-transfer-in-europe/workshop-financing-know... |
| Description | Assessing the impact of public venture capital programmes in the United Kingdom: Do regional characteristics matter? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This paper analyzes whether and how the impact of publicly-backed VC funds varies among regions, depending on their level of innovation intensity, when compared to private VC funds. Our analyses on a sample of 650 VC-backed companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1998- 2007, show for publicly-backed VC funds (when compared to private VC funds): (a) a greater propensity to invest in early-stage and technology-based sectors, (b) a greater ability to attract partners in syndication and (c) lower positive exit rates of investee companies. Furthermore, our findings confirm that regional characteristics matter in rigorously assessing the effectiveness of public VC programmes. Indeed, we show that the performance of companies backed by publicly- supported VC funds varies according to the level of innovation intensity of the regions in which they are located. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Final Conference on Knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The final conference is organized within the FinKT (Financing Knowledge Transfer in Europe) research project, financed by the European Investment Bank (EIBURS measure), and the research project "Market and non-market mechanisms for the exchange and diffusion of innovation" financed by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (PRIN measure) in order to present the final outputs derived from the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://finkt.unibo.it/events/final-conference-finkt-2015/ |
| Description | From the lab to the stock market? An analysis of University-Oriented Seed Funds in Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This work investigates financial mechanisms of academic entrepreneurship focusing on the role of university and PRO-oriented seed funds (i.e. USFs), namely private-equity VC funds with an explicit mission to make investments in academic spin-offs. In this work, we first offer an overview on USFs highlighting heterogeneity and main characteristics. Second, through data (drawn from Thomson One) on a total of 1353 companies we provide empirical evidence showing how USF-backed companies perform in the market with respect to non USF-backed companies. Empirical evidence suggests that USF- backed companies perform better in terms of staging and syndication, but worse in terms f exit and acquisition. Finally, results also suggest that within the group of USF-backed companies, the one that can attract more investors are the ones financed by USFs that collaborate with a unique university. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | From the lab to the stock market? An analysis of University-Oriented Seed Funds in Europe |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This work investigates financial mechanisms of academic entrepreneurship focusing on the role of university and PRO-oriented seed funds (i.e. USFs), namely private-equity VC funds with an explicit mission to make investments in academic spin-offs. In this work, we first offer an overview on USFs highlighting heterogeneity and main characteristics. Second, through data (drawn from Thomson One) on a total of 1353 companies we provide empirical evidence showing how USF-backed companies perform in the market with respect to non USF-backed companies. Empirical evidence suggests that USF- backed companies perform better in terms of staging and syndication, but worse in terms f exit and acquisition. Finally, results also suggest that within the group of USF-backed companies, the one that can attract more investors are the ones financed by USFs that collaborate with a unique university. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Internal and external drivers of green investments in the energy sector |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on green energy investments. By analyzing the financing process of more than 1,000 clean tech companies over the alst 20 years, we examine how firm-specif factors, public policies and external environment contingencies affectthe ability of green companies to attract capital. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Mix and Match: Corporate Diversification and CVC Portfolio Strategies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The literature on venture capital (VC) has investigated the determinants of portfolio composition and how it effects both investors' and the investee companies' performance. However, with Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), one might expect these relationships to be different as investments are strategically used to learn about new markets and/or technologies rather than just generate financial returns. In this paper we analyze the strategic use of CVC by exploring how the diversification strategies of the parent firm influence her CVC portfolio strategies. Using data from a sample of 234 US public corporate investors (1996-2006) the paper shows how technically diversified corporations have technically diversified CVC portfolios, as might be expected. However, corporations operating in diversified markets have focused CVC portfolios, and this effect seems to be particularly strong for firms with low R&D intensities, suggesting a more complex interplay between R&D and CVC use than previously supposed. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Mix and Match:Corporate Diversification and CVC Portfolio Strategies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The literature on venture capital (VC) has investigated the determinants of portfolio composition and the effects it has on both the investors' and the investee companies' performance. However, with Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), one might expect the relationship to be different as investments in entrepreneurial ventures are strategic means for corporations to learn about new markets and/or technologies. In this paper we analyze the strategic use of CVC by exploring the relationship between the corporate strategy of the parent firm and her CVC portfolio strategies. The analysis uses data on a sample of 234 US public corporate investors in the period 1996?2006 and shows how the level of corporate diversification of the parent firm influences the scope of her CVC funds, and how this differs depending on whether one considers corporate diversification andJeplocrotfdoeliso:Ls2c1o,pOe3f2rom a market or a technology perspective. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Running ahead in the nanotechnology gold rush. Strategic patenting in emerging technologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This paper provides theoretical and empirical contributions on how patent scope varies over time and by type of applicants in the initial phases of an emerging technology. We refer to the literature on technology life-cycles and on appropriability regimes in order to study the evolution of patent scope - as measured by the number of claims - in the specific case of nanotechnology. Our regression analyses, based on a sample of 58,244 nanotech US patentes, show that - once time, sector and firm effects are controlled for - patent scope decreases over the subsequent phases of the technology life-cycle. Moreover, we find that university nanotech patents tend to be characterized by a broader scope than other patents. We conclude by discussing the managerial and policy implications of our empirical results. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Running ahead in the patent gold rush. Strategic patenting in emerging technologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This paper provides novel theoretical and empirical contributions on how patent scope varies over time and by type of applicants in the initial phases of an emerging technology. We refer to the literature on technology life-cycles and on appropriability regimes to study the evolution of patent scope - as measured by the number of claims - in the specific case of nanotechnology. Our regression analyses based on a sample of 58244 nanotech US patents show that - once controlling for time, sector and firm effects - patent scope decreases over the subsequent phases of the technology life-cycle. We conclude by discussing the managerial and policy implications of our results. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Strategic and operational choices for sustainable mobility solutions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodologically sound instrument to assess the long-term penetration of innovative propulsion systems vis a_ vis the technologies that currently dominate the market. Towards this end, it simulates the diffusion process of four propulsion technologies (gasoline ICE, LPG ICE, EV, and fuel cells) by taking endogenously into account the effect of learning-by- doing at the manufacturing level. The analysis is extended to the EU zone, it encompasses a time horizon of 20 years and it is repeated for three different policy scenarios, namely: a business-as-usual scenario, an incentive scenario (where financial aids are envisaged for the purchase of non-polluting vehicles) and a production quota scenario (where vehicle manufacturer produce a minimum quota of zero-emission vehicles). The results suggest that - without any specific intervention - the EU urban transportation market will continue to be significantly dominated by ICE vehicles. However, they also indicate that this trend can be reverted by sound policies aimed at supporting the development of new transportation technologies. In particular it is argued that policies that leverage the learning curve of the new technologies during the very early stage of their life cycle are more effective than those that envisage a generalized support dispersed over a longer time horizon. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |