Universities as Educational Locations for High-tech Founders
High-tech founders agree: whoever wants to manage his own company should acquire the necessary knowledge as early as possible - at best already during studies or training, at the latest, however, during the preparations for start-up. This result is striking because normally several years of employment lie between graduation and the move to entrepreneurship. Yet, it is specifically entrepreneurs, previously in the working field for a long time, who believe it is particularly important to gain knowledge about business establishment while still at university. That supports the approach of "EXIST - University-based Start-ups", a Federal Ministry for Education and Research programme. As the scientific advisor, the Fraunhofer ISI surveyed 298 innovative companies that were established between 1996 and 2000 in the five EXIST regions. Only a few entrepreneurs risked the move to independence immediately following their studies or after working as an employee in the science field; most gathered experience in a company first. The special role of universities lies in their function as trainers of high-tech entrepreneurs. Over 80 per cent of them have a degree, mostly in engineering or scientific areas of study. Many entrepreneurs are graduates of regional universities. Therefore, the efforts of start-up initiatives at universities, as promoted by EXIST, benefit the relevant region for the most part. Learning about business management in technical and scientific subjects as well as entrepreneurial key qualifications are at the top of the wish list of young entrepreneurs. Another task that the universities are to accomplish is exposing students to the concept of entrepreneurship in order to better prepare their graduates for business start-up. Regarding the starting conditions for start-up, all five regions received very poor marks for credit institutions willingness to finance and for access to venture capital. In other aspects the companies in the Dresden area and the Thuringian locations evaluated their regional start-up conditions better than the companies in the remaining regions. The access to universities and non-collegiate research institutions as well as the locations image among business partners was commended. The complete study, "Welche Bedeutung haben Hochschulen für das regionale Gründungsgeschehen?" (What Value do Universities have for Regional Start-ups?), can be found on the EXIST Internet site at http://www.exist.de(opens in new window) or as a PDF file via a direct link (only in German). The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI complements the techno-scientific spectrum of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft with economic and societal aspects, analysing technological developments, their market potentials and their impacts on economy, state and society. The Institutes interdisciplinary teams focus their work especially on the fields of energy, environment, production, communication and biotechnology, as well as regional research and research policy.
Countries
Germany