| Abstract |
Technology-oriented innovations are the key to improving sustainable competitiveness within the European Union (EU). The success of a technology-oriented company depends on its ability to develop new technologies, products and services to enter new markets. The starting point of any business or organization is the precise definition of its business processes that lead to an efficient implementation of technology-oriented innovations. These innovations are then transferred into products and services to achieve an early economic success. There are various processes that have to be identified starting with an idea, its realization, the corresponding funding and finally its commercialization. They are affecting not only these processes entrepreneurs and innovators, but also other stakeholders (i.e. inventors, innovation managers, coaches, mentors, business angels, investors, etc.). All these parties contribute to the strengthening of innovation and competitiveness in the individual enterprise in particular and last not least in the entire EU. Europe benefits from its innovative strength, its efficiency in implementing new ideas and its scientific knowledge compared to other economic regions in the world. A growing development of technology innovations strengthens labor markets and thus the entire society benefits from technological innovations. According to a survey of the European Commission on the innovation performance of member states, there are still major differences within the EU countries, despite the fact that there have been many measures to improve the innovation strength. While countries like Sweden, Germany, Ireland and Luxembourg are at the top of the rankings, countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia and Poland are ranked on the last places. This raises the question: How can an assimilation of all EU countries on a high innovation level be achieved? A detailed analysis proved that it is necessary to improve the Technopreneurship processes based on cross-uniform models. Furthermore, the consistent definition and formalization of innovation processes enable all EU countries to develop technology-based innovations efficiently and quickly. With respect to this question, this case study analyses the financing and business development processes in Technopreneurship. The aim of this case study is to analyze these processes in selected countries and to compare Germany (as a leading innovator in the EU), Bulgaria (as one of the EU's modest innovators) and Switzerland (non-EU country, but ranked as one of the innovation leaders). The starting point for the development of these uniform cross-models is a comprehensive status quo analysis of the processes in the respective countries. Therefore, two major roles are considered: firstly, the roles of technology-oriented entrepreneurs and secondly, the roles of investors. The case study focuses on the three main financing phases of start-ups and young companies: the seed, A and B phase. With selected scenarios, we analyze challenges in technology-oriented innovation developments and their different approaches and processes in the three aforementioned countries. Based on these results we are able to present precise definitions, models and optimization capabilities of EU-wide Technopreneurship processes. Finally, we are able to derive consistent process models from these scenarios, that enable optimal assessments and evaluations whether to realize innovative ideas or not. |