SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In the growing knowledge economy, the spaces where knowledge is created become increasingly more important. Interactions between government, university and industry can foster innovation and the creation of new ventures from the knowledge base. New forms of triple helix collaborations, such as hybrid organizations, as well as trilateral networks, are created by these actors in order to fill gaps in roles and reduce transaction costs while enhancing innovation and firm formation (Etzkowitz 2000). The innovation of organizational structures and re-ordering and reforming of institutions can assist in the creation of innovative new firms that are formed within this triple helix context. However, triple helix configurations and networks are usually assumed to benefit a particular region or micro-economy. Little has been research and written about transnational triple helix combinations that are created for the purpose of facilitating entrepreneurial activity and culture across national boundaries (Clouser 2006). New international ventures that are comprised of members from different countries, or serve multiple international markets in the early phases of their lifecycles are referred to as “born global ventures”, “international new ventures” or “global start-ups”. These new business types have been in the rise in nearly all developed countries, and researchers have noted the phenomenon (OECD, 1997; Simon, 1996; Nikkei Sangyoo Shimbun, 1995). These new ventures leverage knowledge and use its applications to achieve superior performance (Oviatt and McDougall, 1994). The Edinburgh-Stanford Link (ESL1) was a unique and arguably successful research, commercialisation and entrepreneurship education collaboration that crossed international boundaries. Through an act of the Scottish Parliament, the ESL1 was started as an “experiment”, with a key goal of informing government and university policy makers. In addition, it was given a mantra of “culture change”, with the goal of making the staff and students of the university more entrepreneurial. Moreover, the ESL1 had a specialized model of technology transfer and intellectual property ownership that favored the funding Country. The stated purpose of new venture creation from ESL1, a triple helix hybrid, was to benefit the local (Scottish economy) through the creation of new knowledge-intensive jobs, while curtailing “brain drain” in the context of a declining Scottish population base. The intended new knowledge firms were to be “born regionals” therefore and the assumption was that mechanisms of protection and control would ensure regional benefits from the exploitation of the science base. Much was learned over the last five years studying the organization and its networks. This paper explores the potential use of new technologies and propose an innovative new mechanism for firm formation in an expanded transatlantic triple helix collaboration designed to birth new “born global” ventures in an educational setting. In doing so it will bring into question current the intellectual property regime that is based on nationalistic structures of protectionism. The creative deployment of emerging platforms and available technologies can facilitate new global venture creation as never before. Our talk addresses the use of virtual environments for interaction and new venture building using a new breed of architecture. The rights to the ownership of intellectual creation, formerly dictated by university and governmental policies that were constructed in the era of regionalism, become impediments to the birthing of international knowledge ventures in the new era of technological globalism. This constraint is evidenced by lessons learned from the ESL1 experience as well as its conceptualized and proposed successor.