Business strategy has come a long way in the past several decades. In the 1980s, the holy grail of sustainable competitive advantage was thought to stem from positioning the firm against a set of five or so industry-level forces, including returns to scale, switching costs, and other entry barriers. (This view was popularized by Michael Porter at Harvard Business School.) In the 1990s, Jay Barney and others began developing what has become known as the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. They argued that internal factors—i.e., firm-specific resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-tradable—were more important in sustaining a competitive advantage than Porter’s external forces.

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Funding to universities to compete for endowed chairs and startup funds for a commercialization initiative are among New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez’s proposals for tech-based economic growth in the coming year. The governor also wants lawmakers to expand the state’s angel investment tax credit and reform the Technology Jobs Tax Credit and R&D Small Business Tax Credit to better support startup companies. The announcements were rolled out over the past two weeks and detailed in the FY15 budget presented to lawmakers.

Angel capital has long played a vital role in state and regional innovation economies, but recent trends in investment capital have pushed angel investment to the fore. As the supply of seed stage venture capital declines in many parts of the country, angels have stepped in to bridge early stage funding gaps for technology startups. The proliferation of angel investors and groups over the last few years has outpaced the recovery of the venture capital industry since early 2009, according to data from the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association Moneytree Survey and the University of New Hampshire Center for Venture Research. In the midst of these changes, many states have stepped up their efforts to attract and incentivize angel investment. Recent initiatives in Minnesota, Florida, Kentucky and West Virginia seek to book seed and early stage capital by working with angel investors.

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Technological innovation is a key factor – if not the key factor – in economic growth and job generation. But in today’s knowledge economy, the capacity to innovate and generate new high-tech industries and jobs is much more concentrated and clustered in some places than others.

Why? That’s a question that has long vexed economists and policy-makers.

The holidays are fast approaching and with them, the chance to catch up on your reading. The team at Business Digest has chosen our ten essential books of the year. Leadership, personal development, innovation…All your favorite themes are here! We wish you all the best for the holidays!

It’s hard for many people to imagine running (or walking) a standard marathon of 26.2 miles, let alone topping that distance with a so-called ultramarathon that could stretch to as much as 100 miles or more. And researchers still know very little about what such grueling treks can do to the human body.

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Johnson & Johnson Innovation has announced that it is expanding its global incubator presence through a novel collaboration with the Office of the Chief Scientist in Israel and other industry partners to establish a new biotechnology incubator near Israel’s Weizmann Science Park.

The annual ISPIM Innovation Management Dissertation Award is made to the student completing the best PhD within innovation management each calendar year. The Award is open to all students completing a PhD within innovation management. 

Mike Judge went all in to get the feel right for his upcoming HBO comedy series, Silicon Valley, which debuts in April.

To come up with material that would pass muster with the tech crowd, Judge—the man behind Beavis and Butthead, Office Space and King of the Hill—and his writers immersed themselves in startup life.

This toolkit has been developed by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), with the support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It provides methodological guidance on assessing the current state of entrepreneurial ecosystems and offers a set of resources and tools that can be used by development practitioners. This toolkit does not aim to be exhaustive, but is intended to serve as a basis for other organizations to build upon. To develop this toolkit, ANDE conducted a comprehensive review of publicly available literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems and identified nine evaluative frameworks. We assessed these frameworks and synthesized key elements and indicators. ANDE encourages practitioners to use this toolkit as a resource guide that can be adapted and modified to fit the local and/sectoral context

A new executive director and a new board chair at WiSys Technology Foundation intend to forge strong relationships throughout the UW System and statewide business community to advance the commercial potential of campus innovations.

With a strong background in technology transfer, business startups and intellectual property management, Arjun Sanga has joined WiSys as executive director. David J. Ward, CEO of NorthStar Consulting Group and a former senior vice president with UW System, has been elected to chair the board of trustees.

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Arizona State University has been awarded a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to create a new “Pracademic Center of Excellence in Technology Transfer” (PACE/T2). PACE/T2 leverages ASU’s proven method and record of success to support technology transfer and commercialization from DOD laboratories. The Center is a collaboration led by ASU’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group (EIG) in association with Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), ASU’s Security and Defense Systems Initiative (SDSI) and ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business.

Doctors will attempt to reanimate a patient’s paralyzed arm with a pioneering surgery that involves capturing signals from his brain and restoring movement through a fine network of electronics linked to arm muscles.

The new effort, being planned by researchers at Case Western Reserve University, will use a brain computer interface, or BCI, developed by researchers at Brown University and Massachusetts General Hospital. In previous work, patients have used this interface to control a computer cursor or a robotic arm (see “Brain Chip Helps Quadriplegics Move Robotic Arms with Their Thoughts” and “Patient Shows New Dexterity with a Mind-Controlled Robot Arm”).

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Through 2018, less than 0.01%of consumer mobile apps will be considered a financial success by their developers, according to a recent report.

A major threat to the mobile app developers are the growing number of free mobile apps, that have set high expectations for what should be paid for.

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Here goes a tale of two entrepreneurs : both trying to change the world in their own ways.

Founder A

- Runs new age startup (SoLoMo/Big Data etc).

- Raised $5mn.

- Is being talked about and written by media very frequently. Is a ‘sexy’ company to talk about.

- Post funding, moved to a swanky office.

- Hires only IITs/IIMs/ISB graduates – no matter what the role is (especially middle management upwards).

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An innovation ecosystem’s ability to assemble, coordinate, and support the necessary components for technology transfer — R&D funding, infrastructure, and capital — has a direct bearing on the success of universities in the development and commercialization of promising research. Since the process for bringing new technologies to market can take more than a decade, progress requires a sustained commitment on the part of many stakeholders. To promote an environment that supports innovation and entrepreneurship at universities, it is crucial to understand the interrelated steps in the university-supported technology transfer process.

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It's easy to take energy for granted, forgetting that throughout much of the world, a lack of power affects everything from business to education to matters of life and death. Approximately 1.5 billion people still don't have access to electricity worldwide, with an additional 1 billion having only intermittent access.

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Boulder-based startup accelerator TechStars said over the weekend that the global network of accelerators it helped found--the Global Accelerator Network--has now hit 55 members

Artificial Intelligence Big Data systems and a much easier way of paying bills by smartphone are among the new innovations from seven financial technology entrepreneurs selected to participate in this year’s FinTech Innovation Lab London.

The Lab, which was launched by Accenture ACN +1.10% in 2012, is a collaboration between Accenture and leading financial institutions in London, supported by the Mayor of London, the City of London Corporation and the Technology Strategy Board. It is designed to nurture early-stage companies from the UK, Europe and elsewhere that are developing new technologies for the financial services sector. Annual venture investment in such technologies nearly tripled globally between 2008 and 2012, according to CB Insights.

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Kelly Gee knows all too well the devastating effects of concussion. A former minor-league hockey player, he says that repeated concussions cut his playing career short. Then, while he was coaching for the Chicago Steel junior-league team, a puck struck him between the eyes—an injury he thinks caused severe depression. “After that my whole life fell apart,” he says. He went to dozens of doctors in a variety of specialties but ultimately found few options for tracking and treating the effects of his injury.

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