Universities ‘failing’ in business start-up drive
‘Most make poor entrepreneurs’
MILLIONs spent on scottish universities to boost the economy have largely failed to achieve that aim, researchers have found.
It was hoped universities would become the source of a scottish silicon Valley – producing the next generation of startup technology firms and science parks, according to a st andrews University study.
however, it damningly concludes that the mission to monetise academic research and boost the economy has been ‘virtually impossible’ to achieve in scotland.
Instead, the study found scottish firms springing from universities ‘start and remain small’ due to lack of ambition and poor management – with postgraduate students apparently setting up spin-off companies to ensure they keep receiving research funding.
The findings follow heavy investment from the scottish government, which has recently paid out £124million for eight ‘innovation centres’ at universities.
dr Ross Brown, a lecturer at st andrews University’s school of Management, said: ‘While very much the received wisdom that universities are good for business and good at creating businesses, unfortunately the reality doesn’t quite match these expectations.
‘The strongly engrained view of universities as some kind of innovation panacea is deeply flawed.
‘as occurred in the past, when inward investment was seen as a “silver bullet” for promoting economic development, university research commercialisation has been granted an equally exaggerated role in political and policymaking circles.’
The research paper says politicians have become obsessed with replicating the start-up culture in california’s silicon Valley.
But the paper, published in the journal Industry and Innovation, states: ‘Inadequate management capacity, low levels of entrepreneurial ambition and weak levels of customer engagement are some of the factors often associated with UsOs (university spin- outs) in scotland.
‘a central problem appears to emanate from the fact that many are started up by postgraduate students in order to obtain followon sources of research funding.’
also highlighted i s the gap between what is being studied at research-intensive universities in scotland – such as life sciences – and the industrial capacity for these areas.
The study suggests that policymakers should focus on more vocational colleges instead.
dr Brown said: ‘Universities are vital for generating human capital, attracting external r esearch income from Uk and eU funding councils and for acting as magnets for top-rated academic researchers. They also play a role in creating the environment conducive to stronger entrepreneurial environments.’ But he added: ‘Most academics make poor entrepreneurs and often view public sector funding as a quasi form of research grant income.’
The scottish government cannot comment on policies ahead of the May election because of rules to limit the risk of prejudicing the campaign.
But in december a spokesman said: ‘The future health of our economy lies in improving our productivity through greater innovation and we want to build links between education and industry and across scotland’s key economic sectors. That is why we are committing funding of around £34million to support research and innovation through our enterprise agencies and the scottish Funding council.’