Universities and Entrepreneurship in Asia: The Case of Nano

The theoretical concepts of a national innovation system and of a quadruple helix of interactions within a system have been used to characterize American and European successes in transforming knowledge to utility—through research and development and entrepreneurship and new ventures. In this model, research universities and new high-tech ventures have together played a major role in innovating new technologies and new businesses. What kind of government and university policies are needed for this helical innovation model to work in the developing economies of Asia? We examine the case of a new high-tech venture, Nano, in South Korea, in order to understand the conditions facilitating its founding and growth. Since in most countries, small- to medium-sized businesses (SMEs) provide the majority of jobs in an economy, understanding how to improve the university research role in fostering high-tech SMEs is an important global issue. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014