The Dispatch
Using academic research to solve business problems
While research commercialisation remains a key area of interest, achieving remains a challenge. Here’s how some universities are spinning research out into businesses.
By Chloë Lane
Academic research is often carried out to help solve pressing business challenges. Unfortunately, in practice, this happens a lot less often than you might think. While business journals facilitate communication between the research community, they do little to contribute to solving global challenges, states a recent AACSB article.
AACSB offers several reasons for this, none of which place the blame on the research itself, rather on the way it’s presented. This is largely because of poor readability, the lengthy nature of academic articles, high subscription prices for journals and the fact that they are largely aimed at other academics.
But academics know the true value of their research and expertise. That’s why business schools are increasingly taking this research into their own hands and creating spin-out businesses: translating this academic research into impactful commercial ventures, and effectively bridging the gap between theory and practice.
"I strongly believe that the most impact an academic can make is through both their academic work and through building business."
"I am very happy we are contributing in this very important and difficult space."
"I am very happy we are contributing in this very important and difficult space."
‘Universities are not ivory towers’
One such example is Trinity Business School, which has recently launched its first spin-out company, IntegrityIQ, an AI-driven training platform that creates personalised ethics and compliance training programmes for companies.
The company’s mission is to help large multinationals address failings in ethics and corporate governance that lead to huge annual losses from fraud, corruption and unethical behaviour.
Having formal support from the business school and Trinity Innovation and Enterprise was ‘critical’ to launch this business, believes Dr Daniel Malan, Founder of IntegrityIQ and Director of the Trinity Corporate Governance Lab at Trinity Business School.
However, it’s not just the businesses that benefit. Spin-outs like this can offer financial benefits for both company founders and the universities, he says.
“Universities do not want to be seen as ivory towers. They engage with industry and commercialise research to increase the societal benefits that can accrue from leading research, teaching and infrastructure,” says Dr Malan. He adds that there is increasing demand from academics to engage in commercialisation activities to increase their impact.
“I strongly believe that the most impact an academic can make is through both their academic work and through building business related to their work that most others cannot build without the related background,” agrees Theodoros Evgeniou, Professor of Technology and Business at INSEAD, and founder of Tremau, a technology company that provides trust and safety solutions for online platforms.
When it comes to his business, he reveals that having those academic roots has had an impact from the very beginning both in terms of business principles and innovation. “We made sure we had put in place from day one a strong governance structure, with an external, very experienced board member and advisors to guide us,” he says.
Tremau is now three years old, with a mission to ensure technology is both safe and beneficial. The company has reached the 7-figure mark for revenue and its clients now include some of the world’s biggest tech companies.
“I am very happy we are contributing in this very important and difficult space. Our solutions help ensure freedom of expression and safety online: a very important mission these days,” he shares.
However, Professor Evgeniou believes that academics in Europe today face challenges when launching spin-outs. He believes the culture and the ‘tick box’ exercises are often counter-productive. He says that European investors are not used to academics being startup founders while still being full time academics. “This is definitely not the case in the US,” he adds, “which I believe is a key reason why the US is so far ahead.”
Despite these limitations, some institutions are excelling at transforming research into business ventures. Oxford University is currently the leading institution in the UK for generating spin-out companies, according to data analyst firm Beauhurst, creating 15-20 new spin-out companies every year.
“The remarkable fact about the Oxford entrepreneurship ecosystem is how vast and varied it is,” reveals Thomas Hellmann, DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Oxford Saïd Business School. “Not only do we have the largest number of IP-based spinouts in Europe, but we also have numerous student-led startups, not to mention all the social enterprises and other entrepreneurial initiatives.”
Using academic expertise for good
Another way institutions are using their academic research and expertise in industry is through partnerships with companies. By forming partnerships, institutions can leverage academic expertise and research to benefit the community.
For example, India’s IIM Indore has partnered with the Indore Police Commissionerate to host a specialised training workshop titled KHOJ (Knowledge, Hope, Outreach & Justice).
Inaugurated by IIM Indore’s director Professor Himanshu Rai, the workshop aims to equip 80 investigative officers with crucial insights, best practices, and tools necessary to investigate and prevent cases of missing minors more effectively. Through archival research, case studies, and interviews with victims and police officers, IIM Indore’s team developed comprehensive recommendations.
The workshop provided the officers with hands-on learning opportunities through detailed case studies, helping the officers understand the psycho-social triggers behind missing cases.
“The KHOJ workshop is an extension of our shared responsibility towards society,” states Professor Rai. “Our research-based recommendations have significantly aided the police in recovering minors. This workshop is crucial for enhancing the capabilities of investigative officers in handling such sensitive cases.”
Similarly, ESSEC Business School has partnered with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) to create The European Financial Data Institute (EUROFIDAI), a public academic institute.
The institute’s main mission is to develop financial databases for academic researchers, with data available directly online through the EUROFIDAI website.
“Increasingly, academic institutions like ESSEC are extending the impact of our research. We are making a commitment to increasing the impact of our research by bringing our ideas into the public sphere, including as products or services. This means we are putting impact front and centre and our spin-out efforts reflects that,” says Dr Ha Hoang, Director of Research at ESSEC Business School.
Student-led start-ups using academic expertise
Other times it’s the students themselves who are utilising the knowledge from business schools and creating a business that solves a social problem – transforming theory into practice.
Every year, Hult International Business School students take part in the Hult Prize, an annual competition for student entrepreneurs around the world. This challenge aims to tackle the planet’s most pressing challenges through social entrepreneurship. Each start-up must align with at least one UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and have a ‘triple bottom line’ focus on people, planet and profit.
GRAFF Inc is a 2023 finalist from Hult International Business School, founded by five student entrepreneurs. A sustainable fashion start-up, it transforms textile waste into a patented material that can be reused – and turns it into useful objects like coat hangers.
During the journey to creating their start-up, the GRAFF team were mentored by Hult professor, Dr Caryrn Pang, who played a pivotal role.
“Through her expertise, Dr Pang has given GRAFF Inc. incredible insight into the fashion industry,” wrote the team in a blog post for the business school. “Having witnessed the fashion industry’s problems hands-on, she knew how to pinpoint exact flaws within fashion, and has helped us approach it by giving us guidance on what fashionistas expect from upcoming sustainable companies.”
Porto Business School also places emphasis on practical application. At the end of their MBA, each student at Porto Business School completes a capstone project. These projects are the summit of months of intensive learning in key management areas such as strategy, logistics, marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship. It’s a chance for students to apply their learning practically, and often these can result in thriving start-ups.
One such start-up is Onedash, a platform that helps to manage cybersecurity for SMEs. The aim is to democratise cybersecurity, making it affordable and accessible to businesses of all sizes. Luís Pereira is the CEO and founder of Onedash, which he developed with the help of Porto Business School’s incubator as part of his final project. “The feedback and powerful insights of our amazing and experienced professors was decisive,” Pereira reveals.
These students’ journeys are just two examples of how individuals at universities and business schools around the world are utilising their academic environments to create innovation solutions to real-world business challenges.
Turning theory into practice
Although the ‘how’ may differ, the outcome stays the same. Universities and business schools are creating solutions to everyday business problems – using the learnings from those research papers that may have otherwise been overlooked.
But regardless of how it’s shared, this academic research is actively changing businesses and lives for the better with tangible results.