Lean startup for materials ventures and other science-based ventures: under what conditions is it useful?

Abstract

Materials-based ventures face a high degree of technology uncertainty and market uncertainty when engaging in the technology entrepreneurial process. Recently, the lean startup methodology (LSM) has been introduced to practice and education as an integrated approach on how entrepreneurs can resolve these uncertainties when starting up a business. While the literature provides examples of LSM's successful application in a range of application areas, its focus application tends to be on consumer software. The purpose of this article is to discuss the degree to which LSM can be applied to the context of technology entrepreneurship. We find that LSM has strengths in addressing market uncertainty, but is largely silent on addressing technology uncertainty. In situations of a low degree of technology readiness, strongly intertwined process and product innovation processes such as those common in materials translation, and of addressing business markets, LSM may not suffice. We discuss the case of competence leveraging as one where technology uncertainty is lower for materials companies and illustrate the benefits on LSM in this context.

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“…They also ensured that they piloted their technologies before full commercialization. This belief and their effort correspond to descriptions of several authors with regards to the application of the lean startup methodology (e.g., Blank, 2013;Blank et al, 2013;Furr et al, 2014;Harms et al, 2015;Kruuti, 2016). Figure 2.…”

“…• minimization of resource wastes (Furr et al, 2014;Moogk, 2012;Ries, 2011) • more efficient and effective new product or service development (Blank, 2013;Gaffney et al, 2014;Ries, 2011) • facilitation of customer acceptable products or services (Gaffney et al, 2014;Järvinen et al, 2014) • usefulness in extreme uncertainty conditions (Blank, 2013;Järvinen et al, 2014;Ries, 2011) • facilitation of commercialization processes of startups, small companies, and multinational companies (Gbadegeshin & Heinonen, 2016;Harms et al, 2015;Kruuti, 2016;Moogk, 2012).…”

“…One of well-known lean/agile approaches is the lean startup methodology. It was propounded by Ries (2011) and it has been applied by scholars in various contexts, such as healthcare (e.g., Gaffney et al, 2014;Silva et al, 2013), biotechnology (e.g., Shimasaki, 2018;Kruuti, 2016;Grohn et al, 2015), education (e.g., Tran, 2015;Youtie & Shapira, 2017), research (e.g., Still, 2017), technology-based ventures (e.g., Harms et al, 2015), and information and communication technology (e.g., Gbadegeshin & Heinonen, 2016;Ibba et al, 2018;Miski, 2014).…”

The impact of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intention of students in science and engineering versus business studies university programs

“…As extending the time commitment for EE is not often an option, we suggest that educators should investigate whether they can create EE didactics that tap into the cognitive schemata of science and engineering students. One promising contender may be the Lean-Startup based classes (Harms, 2015;Harms et al, 2015), as this didactic approach draws heavily on the empirical circle (Ries, 2011) that all science and engineering students should be familiar with. The same approach also builds on the design approach that science and engineering students ought to be familiar with (Mueller and Thoring, 2012).…”

关键新材料创新突破的研究回顾与展望

“…。 "高技术不确 定性" 和 "高市场不确定性" 是阻碍新材料商业化的 主要影响因素 [42] 。高技术不确定性主要体现在新材 料本身属性、 工艺兼容性、 互补产品协同性和技术 开发成本等方面 [43,44] 。以高密度聚乙烯材料为例， 高密度聚乙烯材料拥有更高的耐热性和硬度， 一直 被认为是低密度聚乙烯材料的最佳替代品， 但是难 塑造且易开裂的材料属性阻碍了其商业化进程 [45] 。 高市场不确定性主要体现在新材料经济效应、 市场应用、 价值链地位与复杂程度等方面 [46,47] 。Bore 等对聚碳酸酯材料的研究发现， 由于其价值链非 常复杂， 从而无法快速替代硅玻璃实现商业化 [45] 。 Lubik 等的研究进一步证实， 市场应用对新材料商 业化至关重要， 新材料技术的通用性特征使得其市 场范围选择非常广泛， 而不同市场具有的生态系统 可能会延缓新材料市场化的进程 [46] 。Mained 等的研 究表明， 新材料实现商业化的时间和成本与生物科 技相近， 但是远高于软件技术， 从而印证了新材料 商业化的高技术不确定性和高市场不确定性 [41]…”