Exploiting Nanotech Opportunities: A Strategic Entrepreneurship Perspective

Abstract

AbstractThis paper analyzes the main challenges nanotech start-ups face in turning nanotech inventions into valuable and marketable nanotech innovations, also considering that nanotechnology discoveries could represent “inventions of methods of inventing” (Rothaermel et al., 2007). In the last decades, nanotechnologies have been a burgeoning area of science and engineering which show an increasing potential to transform a broad range of industries, and to boost the US and European firms' competitiveness (OECD, 1998). Although these emerging technologies share some problems with new ventures in other emerging industries ( e.g. biotech), nanotechnology firms have to balance the management of high technical and high market risk, still evolving regulatory frameworks (Bowman et al. 2006) and strategies for entering the business network and for attracting investments, e.g. in the form of potential venture capitalists. Potential investors, in turn, will face the well-known hurdle of the due diligence, considering for example health or safety concerns, manufacturing, availability of distribution channels, etc. (Burden, 2007).We propose that configuring their network and choosing the right market segment are the key strategies nanotech ventures should adopt in pushing their early growth in the global market. We analyze a sample of 15 European nanotech firms which confirm our predictions. Due to the novelty of the topic covered in this study, this research is exploratory in nature.