Publications
Working Papers
August 2011
The WIBDI Story – Technology, Tradition & Trade
Suzanne Duncan & Brendan Gray
Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Women in Business Development Inc (WIBDI) assists women and families in Samoa to improve their well-being through establishing sustainable, organic, fair-trade enterprises. WIBDI’s model for economic and social development appears to have succeeded where other community-based initiatives by NGOs, charities and government agencies have struggled or failed. Since being established in 1991, WIBDI’s major achievements have included reviving the traditional Samoan fine mat weaving industry and winning the exclusive contract to supply virgin coconut oil to The Body Shop internationally (WIBDI acts as the marketing company for local oil suppliers who it helps to achieve organic, sustainability and fair trade certification).
The results of our case study suggest that several internal factors have contributed to WIBDI’s success. These sources of competitive advantage include WIBDI’s visionary leaders, a strong organisational culture, which encourages empowerment, and its business policy, which is to by-pass central (i.e. government) and negotiate local (i.e. village or tribal) political structures to deal directly with the key economic drivers in developing communities, which are often women and families (Peredo & Chrisman, 2004). In this case, the budding entrepreneurs that WIBDI assists are keen to add value to Samoa’s existing natural and human resources. WIBDI provides free financial literacy, production and business management education to its clients, as well as access to micro-finance and marketing networks and expertise. It also assists with disaster relief and is now a major promoter of organic products (Fairbairn-Dunlop et al., 2010).
Our historical research also highlights a number of external events have helped to shape the organisation’s culture, policies and practices. These critical incidents include Cyclone Ofa in 1990 and Cyclone Val in 1991 that caused widespread damage. The taro leaf blight in 1993 destroyed plantations throughout Samoa, crippling the taro industry and threatening the subsistence economy of rural Samoa. On the positive side, an approach from The Body Shop in 2007 has resulted in a growing focus on the export of organic products. Finally, a massive earthquake that struck south of Samoa in September 2009 caused a tsunami that devastated the country’s southern coasts. The first three events spurred WIBDI to reorient its original focus on helping a small group of aspiring female business owners with close links to the organisation to an external focus that benefited a much wider group of people. The final event reinforced the benefits of WIBDI’s dual economic development and aid approaches.
Download the full WIBDI case study.
How entrepreneurial are New Zealand university students?
July 2011
Anna Garcia & Brendan Gray
Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
An international study into the entrepreneurial orientation of university students suggests that New Zealand students compare well to their overseas peers.
The findings come from the 2008/9 Global University Entrepreneurial Student Spirit Survey (GUESSS). The full database was only released recently by the survey organisers at St Gallen University in Switzerland, which has allowed researchers at the University of Otago’s Centre for Entrepreneurship to compare the views of Australasian students and their counterparts in the rest of the world.
The results suggest there are few significant differences between the career aspirations of students in New Zealand, Australia and globally. Most wish to begin their post-university careers working for an established company, presumably to gain work experience, professional expertise, life skills, networks and financial resources.
About 15% of New Zealand university students said they intended to work for themselves immediately after graduation, compared to 18% of Australian students and 16% globally. However, there is a large increase in the numbers of students intending to establish their own businesses five years after leaving university. In New Zealand and Australia, this ratio is slightly higher than the global figure. In New Zealand the desire for independent employment (after working in an existing firm for five years) rises to almost 47% of respondents, compared to 45% in Australia and 42% globally. The majority of students indicated that they wanted to start up their own businesses, which is consistent with the global results. Some students, particularly those studying social science and health subjects, are not particularly interested in being self-employed.
Another focus of this study was students’ current entrepreneurial intentions. A surprisingly high proportion of students (about 70% globally) had thought about owning a business in the future, but few students had progressed significantly towards their business start ups. This suggests that students have other priorities (e.g. completing studies) and/or that they lack the requisite expertise, resources and/or confidence to start their own businesses at their current stage of life.
The study also looked at the role of universities in the development of entrepreneurial talent. Students tended to place a high degree of importance on such things as entrepreneurial education and seminars, and contacts for general questions, and least importance on services such as incubators. When students were asked whether they used these services, though, it was discovered that in general they tended not to. Low levels of awareness about many support services, rather than perceived quality, appeared to be the major barrier to use.
More than 5,000 New Zealand students took part in the on-line survey, out of a global total of more than 63,000. The vast majority of New Zealand respondents came from two universities. Only 89 Australian students from one institution took part in the study, which means that the Australian results need to be treated with some caution.
Download the full survey report.
June 2010
The commercialisation of university innovations – A qualitative analysis of the New Zealand situation
Alan Collier & Brendan J. Gray
University of Otago
Abstract
This report discusses the findings of the second stage of a comprehensive two-year study into the enablers and barriers to the effective commercialisation of scientific innovations produced by researchers at universities and crown research institutes (CRIs) in New Zealand.
The first stage involved a survey of the New Zealand scientific community. While we found a broad consensus about the potential of innovation to spur New Zealand’s economic development, there was a wide diversity of opinion about what sectors should be targeted and how commercialisation practices by universities and CRIs should be organised, coordinated and improved (Ahn, Gray & Collier 2009).
The second stage of the study focuses on the effectiveness of university commercialisation policies and practices. This involved more than 40 in-depth interviews with university senior managers, research managers, directors and staff in university technology transfer offices, staff from national government agencies and local economic development agencies, plus a significant review of literature on the topic.
The results suggest that the support of senior management is essential for the effective commercialisation of innovations. Related to this is the need to develop a strong culture of innovation and entrepreneurship within institutions. Unfortunately the New Zealand Government does not fund universities to transfer technology to industry, so there could be a case for targeted funding to facilitate this. Surprisingly, perhaps, there appears to be little conflict between research publication and commercialisation aims. The most able and senior researchers also appear to be at the forefront of commercialisation activities. It is pleasing to see that the Government has recently modified the performance based research funding (PBRF) criteria and has introduced a new panel for Professional and Applied Research that researchers can opt to have their portfolio assessed by (in addition to their main panel). However, it is important that universities also amend their own promotion policies to give more weight to commercialisation outcomes, which could in turn help encourage a greater number of younger and mid-career researchers to think more seriously about the opportunities and benefits that can arise from engaging in commercialisation endeavours. Linked to this is a need for formalised training to improve the knowledge of PhD students and junior faculty about the commercialisation process and to help researchers identify commercial applications that may arise from their findings.
Download the full research report
February 2010
Innovation, Technology Transfer and Commercialisation in New Zealand
Mark J. Ahn, Brendan J. Gray & Alan Collier
Ahn, Victoria University of Wellington
Gray & Collier, University of Otago
Abstract
Two-thirds of New Zealand’s intellectual property and scientific publications come from universities and research institutes, so improving the commercialisation of innovations developed in these institutions is important due to its potentially significant economic impact.
Using a blend of institutional theory and the resource-based view of competitiveness, we explored the views of New Zealand’s scientific community concerning the role of innovation in economic development, as well as perceptions of the strategies, structures and performance of the technology transfer offices that are mandated to encourage and facilitate commercialisation.
While we found a broad consensus about the potential of innovation to spur New Zealand’s economic development, there was a wide diversity of opinion about what sectors should be targeted and how commercialisation should be organized, coordinated and improved. We concluded that companies face high transaction costs when trying to effectively access and commercialise innovations developed by universities and research institutes given the broad array of organisational capabilities, objectives, approaches and measures utilised by the latter’s technology transfer offices (TTOs). For policy makers, our findings suggest that a uniform approach to measuring the effectiveness of TTOs may help align missions, reduce transaction costs, and enhance the effectiveness of commercialisation strategies and practices.