Born to be Sold: Start-ups as Products and New Territorial Life Cycles of Industrialization

Abstract

Territorial innovation models and policy practices traditionally tend to associate the emergence, resurgence and growth of start-ups with the development of local industries, either as industrial pioneers or as innovative spinoffs embedded in a regional production system. This approach is in line with a “life cycle” pattern of innovation and of industrialization marked by sequential waves of growth and decline, by technological renewal and by sectorial transitions. In a knowledge and financial economy characterized by combinatorial knowledge dynamics, by even shorter project-based innovations and by global financial and production networks, this approach is called into question. Through the case of Swiss medical technologies (Medtech), this paper highlights how local medtech start-ups' evolution is shaped, from its early phase on, by the corporate venture strategies of multinational companies. While the economic potential of start-ups was traditionally perceived in a longer run, they seem to be more often “born to be sold” today. New research avenues and policy issues are finally derived from this particular case to address territorial innovation and competitiveness in the future.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Swiss National Science Foundation and the European Science Foundation for their support to the research entitled “Cluster Emergence, Renewal and Transition in Switzerland: Evidence from Cleantech, Medtech and the Watch Industry.” They also thank Max-Peter Menzel and the two anonymous reviewers for their precious comments on earlier versions of this paper. The responsibility for the content of this contribution remains entirely ours.

Notes

1. Data taken from a survey into the Swiss medical technologies industry in 2012, published by Medtech Switzerland (an initiative of the Swiss government) in collaboration with Fasmed and Medical Cluster (Medtech Switzerland, 2012).

2. Research financed by the Fond National Suisse de Recherche Scientifique entitled “Cluster Emergence, Renewal and Transition in Switzerland: Evidence from Cleantech, Medtech and the Watch Industry.”

3. According to Corbin and Strauss (2008), the saturation concerns reaching the point where “the new” does not necessarily add anything to the story, model, theory or framework.

4. MAXQDA was used as a Computer-Assisted Program to analyse our qualitative data.

5. All statements in this paper have been translated from French by the authors.

6. In the region of 16–24 million Euros.