Intellectual Capital in Science Parks and Incubators

Citation

(2013), "Intellectual Capital in Science Parks and Incubators", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 14 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic.2013.25014baa.001

Intellectual Capital in Science Parks and Incubators

Article Type: Call for papers From:Journal of Intellectual Capital Volume 14, Issue 2

Guest Editors:

Professor Francesco Schiavone, University Parthenope of Naples (Italy)Professor Marco Romano, University of Catania (Italy)

Aim and scope

Intellectual capital (henceforth: IC) is a critical driver for the success and survival of every organisation. IC consists of human, structural and relationship capital. Human capital of the entrepreneur, organisational capital and relational capital affect greatly the performance of new companies (Pena, 2002). The creation and management of IC is more articulated if business start-ups are localised within an incubator or science park. In this case, IC of incubated start-ups (“the incubatees”) depends on both their own intangible assets and the knowledge, experiences, processes of the business incubator and/or science park. On the one hand, prior research reports the human capital of the entrepreneur is the most important dimension of IC for new ventures localised within business incubation centres (Pena, 2004). Therefore, managers of business incubators should pay great attention mainly to this determinant. On the other hand, these structures create own intangible assets and share them with their Incubatees. Dimensions of IC within business incubators have interactive relationships and affectthe growth of the incubatees in different ways: all the typical dimensions of IC (human capital, structural capital, relational capital) affect positively the knowledge transfer from the business incubator to the incubatees; human capital is probably the most important between these dimensions as it affects positively all the others (Hongli and Lingfang, 2011). Therefore, the incubated business start-ups should make continuous efforts (e.g. in the organisation of their internalprocesses or the enhancement of their absorptive capacity) to exploit as much as possible the invisible assets provided by their incubators.

The aim of this special issue is to analyse the creation, management, exploitation and measurement of all three types of IC within business incubators and science parks. These issues may be treated in relation to the IC of business incubators/science parks or even the incubatees.

Therefore, the fundamental questions to which the articles selected for this special issue aim to satisfy are: How do science parks and business incubators create, transfer and improve the Incubatees’ IC? How does business incubation affect specifically each dimension of the Incubatees’ IC? What are the most important dimensions of the IC of business incubators for the success of their incubated start-ups? What are the most relevant intangible assets for start-up companies within science parks?

The Special Issue welcomes submissions in the form of conceptual, case-based, or empirical papers offering new insights into the international context of (but not limited to) the following topics:

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  The integration of Business Incubators’ IC and Incubatees’ IC.

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  Formal and informal mechanisms of improvement of the intangible assets of Incubatees.

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  Creating, managing and exploiting the IC of business incubators and science parks.

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  Innovative models of business incubation supporting the IC of Incubatees.

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  Technology customer relationships provided by Business Incubators.

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  Business incubators’ processes based on the evaluation of the Incubatees’ IC.

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  Co-creation and co-development of IC by Incubatees within the same incubator or science park.

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  Measuring the impact of incubators and science parks on the single dimensions of Incubatees’ IC.

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  Measuring IC of start-ups within Business Incubators.

For all additional information, contact Professor Francesco Schiavone, University Parthenope of Naples, at schiavone@uniparthenope.it

Submission deadline is 1 July 2013.

All submitted papers are expected to fully comply with JIC standards and are subject to regular review procedures. Papers should be 4,000 to 7,000 words in length and should not have been published previously in any other journal (print or electronic) format. All submissions should follow the publisher’s style and format. This information is available from the publisher’s web site – http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=jic

Proposed schedule

Submission deadline: 1 July 2013Papers reviewed: 30 October 2013Revised papers reviewed and accepted: 1 February 2014Final versions of accepted papers delivered: 1 March 2014

Guest Editors Bio

Francesco Schiavone is Assistant Professor in Management at University Parthenope, Naples (Italy). He holds a PhD in Network Economics and Knowledge Management from the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari. Currently, he is also Visiting Professor in Innovation Management at ESG Management School (France). He is member of the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business and of the Journal of Organizational Change Management. Professor Schiavone research interests are: innovation, entrepreneurship, technological change, social networks, communities of practice, business strategies, crowdfunding.

Marco Romano is Assistant Professor in Management at University of Catania (Italy). He holds a PhD in Business Management from the University of Palermo. He published more than 20 articles on both Italian and International scientific journals. He was visiting lecturer at University of Florida between 1998 and 2010. Since October 2010 he is President of the Science and Technology Park of Sicily (PSTS), Italy. Professor Romano research interests are: strategic management, business models, innovation, science parks, technological transfer.