Design is communication. In a traditional sense of design theory this idea is based on a product related perspective, stating that good design must speak a language that is understood by the recipient. The aesthetics of the design catches his interest and opens his mind as a prerequisite for his willingness to enter into a dialogue. From symbols and images an argument is derived, rationally understandable, convincing and finally condensed in a message. This process is triggered by the product design. It communicates a value proposition for the recipient combined with a demand to buy the product it refers to. At the moment of the purchase decision a transformation takes place and the value proposition turns into a benefit, the design into the product utility and the recipient into a customer. It will be argued that this process retains its validity even if communication itself is considered as a product.

While knowledge-intensive societies rely heavily on universities for the creation of knowledge, its translation into economic value is typically performed by firms in the market. Since universities increasingly depend on additional funds for new and expensive research, current policies urge them to interact proactively with the market. The authors analyse how an entrepreneurial university creates, delivers and captures value by characterizing its business model. They develop a business model of the university as a research and teaching institution, with which they contrast purely private and purely public universities as two business model archetypes to show how these archetypes determine incentive and governance structures. They examine how the inclusion of commercial transfer as the ‘third mission’ affects the university’s income structure and thereby its objective and incentive structure. Within their business model framework, the authors derive strategic implications for the implementation of commercial transfer and the transition to the new business model.

This paper examines how the generation of entrepreneurs 50+ should be addressed in order to raise their interest for improving their skills, and how young entrepreneurs and students can profit from the seniorpreneurs’ expertise in production processes and market knowledge as well as from their networks. To promote the promising synergies arising from the collaboration of young and elderly entrepreneurs a project was initiated that combines an integrated product development with business plan design support. Prospective entrepreneurs with industrial experience (seniorpreneurs) and innovative product ideas are matched with multidisciplinary student teams to generate a going-to-market prototype as a basis for starting new businesses. From the standpoint of research and development the balance is excellent with several promising product innovations and business plans for entrepreneurial implementation. The perspective of science and technology transfer demands an urgent desideratum to bring the accumulated value potential into the market.

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