Competence Block Approach to High-Tech New Venture Creation : The Case of the Octopus Programme

This paper provides an analysis of an attempt to accelerate mobile service development, testing and new venture creation in Finland. The Octopus programme, an open innovation, development and testing environment for mobile applications, joins together industrial, educational, and governmental organisations to provide elements to bring new mobile services from innovation to business. The core of Octopus is a live testing environment that can be used by anyone interested in developing mobile services. The analysis points out the importance of understanding the multi-level and multi-actor nature of high-tech entrepreneurship. The Octopus programme is an illuminating case of showing that, when failing in the process of creating interconnectedness between different economic actors, the competence block does not work properly and most importantly does not create new business ventures