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Climbing Mountains:

Entrepreneurship through

Higher Education

Muscat, March 17, 2012

Presented By:

Thomas Andersson Senior Advisor – The Research Council

Sultanate of Oman

andersson@trc.gov.om

http://www.trc.gov.om

mailto:said.mandhari@trc.gov.omhttp://www.trc.gov.om/

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GDP per capita

Source: World Development Indicators (2010). Data are from 2008

or latest available.

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Economic Diversification Share of largest economic sector in total value added,

Source: World Development Indicators (2010). Data are from 2008

or latest available.

High-tech Exports as percent of GDP

Source: Estimates based on World Development Indicators (2010).

Data are from 2008 or latest available.

R&D Expenditures (% of GDP)

Oman Knowledge ID Federation 5

Source: World Development Indicators (2010), except Oman and

Quatar (informal estimates). Data are from 2008 or latest available.

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Number of days required to start a

business

Source: World Development Indicators (2010). Data are from 2008

or latest available.

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Entrepreneurship

• Shifting economies of scale and scope

• The rising importance of risk-taking and

freedom from historical overhang

• Features of entrepreneurship (necessity-based,

opportunity-based)

• Features of entrepreneurs (age, gender,

education, experience, neworks)

• Sources of success (captain or current; mode

of entry, skills, attitudes, wider ecosystem)

Matching Entrepreneurial

Capacity and Opportunities

Opportunity-seeking entrepreneur

Entrepreneur-seeking opportunity

Entrepreneurial

capacity (EC)

Entrepreneurial opportunities (EO)

Entrepreneurship

Imbalance

EO > EC

Imbalance

EC > EO

2

1

IUE

IUE

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Abandoning the Linear Model

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Open Innovation Model

Internal Ideas

External Ideas

New

Products

& Markets

Spin Offs

Source: Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, H. Chesbrough, 2003

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Evolution of Innovation Metrics

First Generation

Input Indicators

(1950s–60s)

Second Generation

Output Indicators

(1970s–80s)

Third Generation

Innovation Indicators

(1990s)

Fourth Generation

Process Indicators

(2000s plus emerging

focus)

•·R&D expenditures

•·S&T personnel

•·Capital

•·Tech intensity

•·Patents

•·Publications

•·Products

•·Quality change

•·Innovation surveys

•·Indexing

•·Benchmarking

innovation capacity

•·Knowledge

•·Intangibles

•·Networks

•·Demand

•·Clusters

•·Management techniques

•·Risk/return

•·System dynamics

Source: Milbergs and Vonortas (2004), Innovation Metrics: Measurement To Insight, Center

for Accelerating Innovation and George Washington University, National Innovation Initiative

21st Century Working Group.

Founder,

Friends &

Family

Stages of development

Seed Start - up Early Growth Expansion

Venture

Capitalists

Quoted Markets

Banks

Business Angels

Diversity of Financial Instruments

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“Seed” Funds Initial stage of

funding

Start up

funds

Fourth

stage

Third

stage

Second

stage

Start up phase Maturing phase

Phases with losses

Phases with profit

Participation Capital / Bank loans Seed funds

Venture Capital

Buy out

Strategic Participation

Start up

Expansion

Phases of Business Development and Funding Tools

Pre-incubation phase

Invention Phases

of Incubators

The Pre-incubation Concept

Start-ups

Higher Education Institutes

Research Centres

Science or technology-based ideas

for new products and services

Pre-incubation

Working Space

Mentoring & coaching

Students

Young graduates

Researchers

Viable start-ups

Spin-off increase

Entrepreneurial culture

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ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT – A CENTRAL HUB IN THE

ENTREPRENUEIAL LANDSCAPE

House of Ideas

Entrepreneurship Policy

Network

Courses

Workshops

Seminars

Conferences

Forum

Competence-oriented

diploma

Non-credit programmes

Career counselling

Business and Tech Labs without borders

Lecturing Researching Mentoring and tutoring Academic counselling

• Knowledge for problem solving and opportunity chasing • Students’ style of learning

• Professional professors

(theory-oriented practitioners)

• Academic professors

(practice-oriented scholars)

Environment

• Open-source network • Federated, distributed and authentic conversations • Access to and refining of entrepreneurship policy

Education

Business process

implementation

Brain mobility & brain waves Labs for experimentation & simulation of high-expectation start-ups

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Entrepreneurship: Role in the Economy

• Source of seeds for the future

• Search of solutions to outstanding issues

• Driver and enabler of structural change

• Driver of job creation

• Key to diversifying the economy

• Source of broadening societal and regional

develoment

• Way of life – intrinsic to active learning, related

to soft skills, creativity, innovativeness,

constructive action

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Entrepreneurship: Outstanding Issues

• Dominance of public sector and big business

framework – red tape, regulations, institutions

• Mindset – from early in life, fortified through

higher education

• Vertical silos, strong association with professions

and established sectors

• Risk-reward ratio; outcomes of success and failure

• Autonomy, room for local adaptation, cultivation

of uniquenss vs. herd behavior

• ... The entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem