Title: Services firms in the IDEON Science Park

Authors: Sonia Sapolnik Dahab, Regis Cabral

Addresses: Nucleo de Politica em C&T, Escola de Administracao - Pos Graduacao, Universidade Federal da Bahia, 40-110-100 Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Innovation Relay Center Northern Sweden and Uminova Center, Umea University, S-90187, Sweden

Abstract: The experience, in the 1970s and 1980s, of the IDEON Science Park, located at Lund University, Sweden, illustrates the type of forces that shaped the institutional design of a science park. We review the literature on science parks and their evaluation, outlining the role of consulting and service firms. IDEON is a ||technology window|| with governance rules, which reduce the transaction cost at the industry - university interface. IDEON’s experience and its ||incubator role|| reinforce the role and function of service firms. Its organisational design overcomes market imperfections, reducing the costs of the innovation process. IDEON is an institutional innovation, which extrapolates traditional evaluation parameters.

Keywords: science parks; service firms; science-based industry; research and development management; Sweden; evaluation; university—industry relations; gatekeeper; governance rules; technology transfer.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1998.002696

International Journal of Technology Management, 1998 Vol.16 No.8, pp.740-750

Published online: 04 Jul 2003 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article