Search

This study maps the evolution of the Australian start-up and innovation ecosystem by exploring policy developments and mapping the key actors, activities, and artefacts. This study unpacks policy developments over the past two decades to show the government's role in shaping the innovation ecosystem and the implications for start-ups. We outline the ecosystem's key actors, including start-ups, scale-ups, support organisations, investors, research institutions, and their growth over time. We examine the artefacts of the ecosystem to understand start-up and innovation performance in a global context. We also explore the activities of the ecosystem in terms of collaboration, research, and development. The study concludes with a discussion of policy gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of circular economy (CE) has emerged as a viable way to achieving sustainable development. Small businesses and start‐ups play a significant role in economic progress, but they also contribute substantially to environmental degradation. In this inductive qualitative study, we conducted multiple interviews with 18 founders of circular start‐ups (CSUs) in Australia to explore and understand the challenges they encountered at different stages of their development and growth. Employing grounded theory, this study unveils barriers associated with distinct phases of the CSU development and growth, categorizing them into antecedent, beginner and growth barriers. The empirical analysis paints a detailed picture of both unique and common obstacles related to the distinctive and novel positioning of CSUs in promoting CE. This research also serves as a valuable foundation for aspiring CE entrepreneurs, practitioners, scholars and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As early as the 1980s, the avalanche of innovative performance witnessed in the global economy has seen the rise of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is recognized as being a vital factor that promotes social change through innovation, leading to opportunities for job and wealth creation, thereby improving the economy. The study of entrepreneurship is, therefore, an important consideration for the long-term social and economic development of a nation. The contemporary competitive globalized work environment requires a range of entrepreneurial skills, not only to start new ventures but also for these ventures to thrive and be sustainable. Being an entrepreneur is an occupation based on specific properties of entrepreneurship. An exploratory study was conducted with university students in Australia to ascertain students' views on entrepreneurship and study programs. The responses were compared with an audit of course offerings from Australian universities' websites to determine whether current programs meet students' expectations in relation to the skills and abilities required to be a successful entrepreneur. The findings suggest that Australian entrepreneurship study programs should be reconceptualized to provide specific experiential learning that enables graduates to hit the ground running in start-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on markups by Hambur (Treasury Working Paper, 2021) shows that markups in Australia have increased since the turn of the century. This is consistent with findings for other advanced economies over the same period. Australia's most digitally intensive firms increased markups the most. Australian industries with the greatest increase in concentration also recorded the greatest increases in markups. This aligns with other economic evidence around declining dynamism. Over recent decades, market concentration has risen, the start‐up rate has dropped, and the share of workers starting a new job has declined. Evidence on markups is consistent with a lack of dynamism in the Australian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly a quarter of all global start-ups are founded by hybrid entrepreneurs, that is, individuals that engage in self-employment activity while simultaneously holding a primary job in wage or remuneration work. This study is the first of its kind to examine hybrid entrepreneurship in Australia using five pragmatic and embedded hybrid entrepreneur mini case studies. Aligning with human capital and skill variety theory, we adopted an interpretivist philosophical paradigm of emergent enquiry action and exploratory research. The paper explores characteristics and antecedents in the forms of the benefits and challenges associated with this increasingly prevalent form of entrepreneurship, including contextual and theoretical foundations. We provide policy and pragmatic research recommendations to enhance the development of this form of employment not only as a steppingstone to full-time self-employment but also as a driver of economic and social benefit to global societies. Furthermore, we provide inferences for future scientific studies within this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research has been conducted to analyze the identification of new biotechnology venture success through entrepreneurial tendencies, education, and innovation orientation on new venture performance. The continuously increasing research in biotechnology has provided various opportunities for entrepreneurs to utilize their innovative and technical skills to improve the firm's development. In this regard, the collaboration between new biotechnology ventures and big companies has also been an effective business strategy for promoting innovation processes. The quantitative design of research methodology has been adopted to assess the effect of new venture performance through entrepreneurial education, tendencies, and innovative learning. The data was collected through questionnaires and was analyzed using SPSS. The results indicated a significant association between ET and new venture performance; a significant association has resulted in entrepreneurial education and new venture performance, along with a significant relationship between innovation orientation and new venture performance. This study provides benefits for public policymakers to foster maximum growth of entrepreneurial activities. In this regard, providing regulatory support and strengthening the institutional structure to encourage entrepreneurship could be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The circular economy (CE) is now widely seen as a key concept to drive sustainability transformations. Existing research on circular business models has tentatively indicated that circular entrepreneurship may be able to play a pivotal role in the transition process. However, grassroots activity in CE has not yet received substantive scholarly attention, nor have the founders of circular ventures. This study attempts to start closing this gap by presenting the first empirical analysis of circular founders' motivations and identities. Our work is based on interviews with 57 founders of circular start‐ups in Europe and Australia. The analysis reveals distinct characteristics for these entrepreneurs. We find that noneconomic motives are dominant drivers of grassroots circular entrepreneurs while they include a triple bottom line orientation (i.e., economic, social, and environmental value) in principle. Yet, circular start‐up founders barely formalize socio‐political dimensions in their activities despite being motivated by social altruism. Furthermore, circular founders have an inventive mindset when starting their entrepreneurial journey, possibly driven by their limited market‐oriented positioning, limited entrepreneurial experience, and managerial education. However, their scaling ambitions grow significantly over time, as opposed to social and sustainable entrepreneurs. Overall, our findings suggest adding grassroots circular entrepreneurs or circular founders as a distinct group of sustainability entrepreneurs to the scientific discourse on sustainability‐motivated entrepreneurship and circular innovation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 2020 at the height of Australia's first national COVID lockdown, NewsCorp Australia announced that more than 125 regional newspapers would either be closed or become available online-only. Queensland was hit hard with 22 regional and 20 community newspapers shifting to online formats, and 15 community newspapers closing. Yet within months of the NewsCorp changes, a significant number of new print newspapers were being announced to fill the 'news deserts'. Broadly welcomed by those in these local communities, the new publications suggest a reinvigoration of long-standing norms and tenets, many of which are specific to regional print news media, such as community-centred, locally-shaped news values and high reliance on 'micro-ads' (i.e. classifieds) and hyper-local business revenue. But given the dire prognostications about print business models, what are the aims and intentions of these start-ups (n = 22), and how do they translate their notions of community-centric news into business models they perceive as viable? Drawing on Hanitzsch and Vos framework for the discursive constructions of journalists' role in society, we find these newspaper start-ups both reassert and claim more vigorously the normative values associated with community journalism as 'social glue', while also developing 'lean start-up' business models that capitalise on the sense of a local newspaper's 'social good' functions through an affective rationale. We argue this represents a shift to a new 'hybrid' model, with strong elements of a traditional and still feisty monitorial news values fusing with a more 'morale-enhancing' and explicitly social cohesion-centric role conceptions. We call it a 'community cohesion model'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the intrapreneurship-performance relationship in firms in the US, Australia, and Slovenia. We examined the relationship between firm profitability and growth and the underlying measures of innovativeness, proactivity, and self-renewal in each of the three countries which exhibit significantly different stages of economic development and per capita incomes. We found that in the US there was a positive relationship between innovativeness and growth, pro-activity and growth, and a negative relationship between self-renewal and growth. Australia showed a positive relationship between both new business venturing and growth and between pro-activity and growth. Slovenia had a positive relationship between in novat iveness and growth and between self-renewal and growth. Surprisingly, negative impacts of new business venturing on profitability were revealed. US firms were the strongest in growth and especially in profitability, followed by Australian and then Slovenian firms. US firms were the most venturesome, innovative, and proactive and Australian firms were the least venturesome. Self-renewal seemed not to differ among the three countries. Based on the results of this study, an intrapreneurship- based economic development model was developed. This study has important practical implications for firms in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how start-ups have been affected by, and have responded to, the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing interview data from 32 Australian start-ups during Australia's second wave of COVID-19. A framework and visualisation were developed, capturing unexplored heterogeneity within these start-ups, depending whether the emphasis was upon opportunities or adversity, and the type and extent of business model changes. Six start-up types were identified: stable beneficiaries, business-as-usual continuers, digital adjusters, adversity survivors, opportunity graspers and lemonade makers. The findings suggest that most start-ups responded to the crisis through business model changes because of crisis-induced opportunities and crisis-induced adversity The anaysis found that the interplay between firm size and crisis influences whether start-ups focus on business model adaptation or business model innovation or a combination of both We thus contribute to the literature on business models, crisis management and a newly emerging field focusing on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for start-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the local multiplier effects in new firm creation by analysing a unique panel dataset of new firms and patents at the regional level in Australia. It finds that new firms in the tradable sector such as low-technology manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services industries have local multiplier effects on new firm creation in the non-tradable sector such as other services industries. It also shows that the local multiplier effect in new firm creation exists between manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services industries in the tradable sector. The local multipliers are greater in regions with more patents than in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Venture capital (VC) is usually invested in high risk technology companies at their early stages of development. In response to the industry risk environment, the VC fund managers have developed a set of risk management practices appropriate for the industry which include investment syndication. Furthermore, the VC funds are supplied by individual and institutional investors with different risk profiles and investment focus, usually in finite amounts and for a limited period of time. The funding agreement between the VC firms and the fund investors combined with the limited amount and time can lead to additional funding liquidity risks as the VC funds are invested in the portfolio companies. In this paper, we develop a simple two period model from a VC firm's perspective with funding liquidity constraints to demonstrate how funding liquidity risk can influence syndication decisions. We subsequently analyze the implication of the model, derive a set of predictions and validate them with VC investment data from Australia. The analysis shows that syndication has both instrumental function in risk management and behavioral implications on risk culture essential for addressing the emerging frontiers of sustainability risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the barriers to entry for Indigenous businesses into the Australian construction industry.Design/methodology/approach A national survey was conducted with 33 Indigenous businesses operating in the Australian construction industry.Findings The findings show that Indigenous enterprises face similar challenges to many small non-Indigenous enterprises wishing to enter the industry. These include adjusting to unique construction industry cultures and practices, breaking into existing business networks and building social capital and being under-cut by industry incumbents and competitors when tendering for projects. These barriers are similar to those faced by other non-Indigenous social enterprises, although Indigenous enterprises do appear to experience relatively greater difficulty in starting-up their businesses and in securing sufficient capital, finance and assistance to enable them to scale-up and tender for normal work packages at a competitive price.Research limitations/implications The results are limited to Australian Indigenous businesses. The survey does not allow a comparison of non-Indigenous and Indigenous businesses, although comparison of results with existing non-Indigenous research into small to medium-sized firms in construction does allow some tentative insights. These need to be explored further.Practical implications These results indicate that there are significant barriers to be addressed within the Australian construction industry if government indigenous procurement policies are to achieve their stated aims of increasing the number of Indigenous firms in the industry. The results also have important implications for Indigenous businesses and for non-Indigenous firms operating in the Australian construction industry.Social implications This is an important gap in knowledge to address if countries like Australia are to redress the significant inequalities in income and health suffered by Indigenous populations.Originality/value In countries like Australia, with significant Indigenous populations, governments are seeking to address persistent disadvantage by using new social procurement initiatives to create quasi construction markets for Indigenous enterprises to participate in the construction industry. While there is an emerging body of research into the barriers facing mainstream small to medium-sized enterprises and, to a lesser extent, social enterprises in construction, the barriers to entry facing Indigenous construction enterprises have been largely ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features several start-up companies in Australia. Cuberider, founded by Solange Cunin and Sebastian Chaoui, has a program that is based on nanosatellite technology that uses nanosatellites with unique sensors that allow students to design and build experiments to measure just about anything. Information about Proxima founded by Sebastian Pedavoli and Dan Nolan, as well as Canva, founded by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams, is also offered.

The paper outlines the evolution of small business policy in Australia and New Zealand. Adopting an historical perspective, changes in policies and programs from the 1970s to the present for these two nations are discussed and compared. Starting with an overview of the nature of small business policy and its emergence internationally, the distinction between small business policy and entrepreneurship policy is considered. Details of the major policy developments for each country are presented by decade, linked to their national governments and the core policy fields. Both countries follow similar patterns of increasing policy sophistication and the transition from small business to entrepreneurship policy. Similarities are most likely due to their closer economic and social ties, and the tendency to look at international trends and adopt them. Australia has retained significant focus on small-to-medium enterprises, whereas New Zealand has moved towards entrepreneurial firms and the enabling environment for all businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technology is enabling change at an ever increasing pace, not only in urban contexts, but also in regional centres, where the Internet in particular is enabling entrepreneurs to com- pete in the global marketplace despite the size and remoteness of their home cities or towns. In regional Australia, the challenges of high unemployment, fading traditional industries, a lack of economic diversity, and a "brain drain" of talent to urban centres high-light the need for novel economic development strategies. Innovation and entrepreneurship are highlighted as potential solutions, but both require knowledge and support to be successful. In this article, the author shares lessons learned as an entrepren- eur and through the ongoing development of a self-sustaining startup and innovation eco- system in the remote region of Cairns, Australia. The model described in this article is now being applied to other regions in Australia, where trained champions are driving the devel- opment of startup and innovation ecosystems adapted to regional needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a large multi-country multi-industry sample of over 158,000 companies, the early-stage company sector is documented to have sizable destruction of revenues and jobs and as well as sizable gross creation of revenues and jobs. The creation aspect has captured the dominant attention of researchers, commentators, and policy makers. Destruction, despite its large magnitude, has long been a backwater of research and most commentary on this sector. Destruction is not simply non-growth but rather prior growth that is subsequently reversed. This paper analyzes creation and destruction evidence across 10 different countries and across eight different major industry groups. Yearly growth/decline rates using revenues and headcount for Years 2 to 5 are analyzed. In each of the three growth years examined there are large amounts of destruction as well as creation simultaneously occurring. For example, in Year 5 gross revenue destruction is 34% of gross revenue creation whilst gross job destruction is 65% of gross job creation. A small percentage of companies accounts for a large percentage of the total job and revenue destruction each year. This small percentage of large destroyers is especially interesting because they had to have had, by necessity, prior sizable creation. This rapid rise and subsequent rapid fall has been very much ignored in the research literature. Regression analysis highlights this aspect for the sample of destroyers. The diverse sources of revenue and job destruction are discussed and potential fruitful research directions highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australia's rules for taxing benefits under employee share schemes in Div 83A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 have been subject to much criticism, particularly by start-up companies and the venture capital industry. The Government under its new Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda proposes to reform the rules for taxing such benefits from 1 July 2015. This article examines how the current rules in Div 83A operate and analyses how the Government's proposed reforms are intended to change the way in which benefits under ESSs will be taxed. The article compares the policy rationale that underpins both the current and proposed regimes and focuses on how the current and proposed rules affect start-up companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]