Authors: Jens Laage-Hellman
This paper deals with new medtech companies commercializing research-based inventions. It focuses on how such firms, in the early phase of their life, build up collaborative relationships with users/customers, suppliers, academic researchers, and various types of innovation support organizations. Four in-depth case studies of Swedish medtech start-ups have been carried out. They confirm the importance of the early relationship-building activities.In particular, the results show that it is essential for medtech start-ups to establish collaborative relationships with potential users/customers for carrying out clinical research. This requires strong efforts, for example, in order to find suitable partners and manage collaborations. Also at an early stage, in order to start up production there may be a need to establish technological collaboration with suppliers. A problem is that for a small start-up – with scarce resources, no track record, and an uncertain future – it can be difficult to make potential partners interested in collaboration. If the start-up company is a university spin-off, the relationship with the inventing research group is very important at the beginning. However, the importance of this relationship tends to diminish over time. Especially for new university spin-offs building relationships with public support organizations can be helpful in order to gain access to valuable resources, directly or indirectly.The implications and lessons for management tend to be context-specific and difficult to generalize. As to public policy, it must be concluded that its role in this context is relatively limited. The effects of bridging organizations on relationship-building are mainly indirect.
Journal: n.a. (n.a. – n.a.)
Web Address: n.a.
Publish Year: 2012
Conference: Rome, Italy (2012)