Principal Topic

During the 1990s, Germany was hit by the “Standortkrise,” the competitiveness crisis, which led to the highest unemployment rates the country had experienced in 60 years. The arising debate focused on the relatively low entrepreneurial spirit and demanded that a better infrastructure should be provided to facilitate starting up new ventures. Since then, the government has started a range of activities to foster entrepreneurship. Among these initiatives is that of establishing regional networks of new technology-based ventures with a supporting infrastructure, such as the biotechnology region “BioRegio Jena.” Regional networks have been thoroughly analysed in prior studies, e.g. regarding their reasons for emergence, their relationships and contents, or their paths of technology development. However, the perspective of the role of regional networks and support infrastructure as perceived by the newly founded ventures as well as the development of that role over time have been rarely assessed.

Method

This research is embedded into the setting of the “BioRegio Jena.” We conducted a social network analysis of all relevant actors included into this newly established network. We are following the changing role of the BioRegio Jena as perceived by the network actors. By applying an embedded approach, we connect this process of the development of the regional network to the translation of this development into entrepreneurial activities.

Results and Implications

Our research results support the expected shifting perception of the role of the network over time—between founding, today’s management and the future expectation, this role is being interpreted in very different forms. At a more aggregated level, studying the growing biotech region around Jena suggests that the applied conservative approach towards entrepreneurship actually seems to become a success factor for developing more sustained ventures in the high-growth biotech industry. Our findings also indicate that a crucial step for the success of fostering new venture-creation processes seems to be a shift in the interpretation of the regional network from an “infrastructure provider” without a distinct shape, towards a “framing” entity with its own identity.

CONTACT: Leona Achtenhagen, EXIST HighTEPP; University of Bamberg; Weide 18; D-96047 Bamberg; Germany; (T) ++49-951-8632793; (F) ++49-951-8631195; Leona.Achtenhagen@ihh.hj.se©