انکوباتور مجازی: مدیریت سرمایه های انسانی در صنعت نرم افزار

In a knowledge-based economy, the creation of wealth becomes synonymous with creating products and services with large software content. However, despite a few major players, the software industry as a whole is fragmented and consists mainly of small, niche market entrepreneurial ventures. The authors study the California software industry to characterize the major barriers to success for these ventures. Simultaneously, a fundamental shift of software technology to a component-based development paradigm will reinforce the industry's fragmented nature by fuelling a third party, independent software component economy. Coupled with the globalization of the IT industry in general, the need for startups and small companies to form strategic partnerships will become increasingly critical to their ability to create wealth. In recent years, innovative public–private partnerships have attempted to assist startups by addressing their lack of physical resources or capital. This is best illustrated by the dramatic growth of incubators and regional capital networks. In this paper, the authors propose a “virtual incubator” model to facilitate startup success and business network formation, shifting the focus to the “virtual value chain” and to connecting startups with business expertise and strategic partners in the marketplace. The authors provide a theoretical basis for the model and its implementation, important to potential investors in virtual incubators.

In a knowledge-based economy, the creation of wealth becomes synonymous with creating products and services with large software content (Hagel and Armstrong, 1997). Software is that ubiquitous technology that powers everything in the Information Age, embedded in everything from automobiles to electric can openers. The knowledge encapsulated in software will increasingly define the economic value of the intellectual capital it represents. Speaking of the importance of this new kind of capital, Stewart (1997)declares: “… [for] a new Information Age economy, whose fundamental sources of wealth are knowledge and communication rather than natural resources and physical labor.” At the heart of this new economy lies the software industry, providing the enabling tools and infrastructure to IT professionals in virtually all other industries. A key characteristic of the software industry is that, despite a few major players, as a whole it is fragmented and consists mainly of small, niche market entrepreneurial ventures. The predominance of entrepreneurs and small companies in the industry will only be accelerated by the move towards a new (component-based) software development technology. Together with the globalization of business and the marketplace, both trends will fuel the need for more strategic alliances and wide-ranging partnerships. This seems to be especially true in California where software development often sets international standards, for example java and html language variants. These competitive drivers will have a profound effect on the US economy and in particular the management and commercialization of intellectual capital. It will present a host of human resources management challenges to both large and small companies, with the roles and responsibilities of employees undergoing profound redefinition. Indeed, the entire role of strategic partners in the value-added chain of an industry continues to undergo dramatic evolution. In this paper, we review some of the current public/private efforts to assist startups and small companies, the critical creative element in the software industry. The authors propose a virtual incubator model to enable small company success and to allow US industry to take advantage of the evolution towards distributed human resources and a business landscape dominated by international strategic partnerships.

The authors propose a virtual incubator model to facilitate small company and startup success and to enable US industry to take advantage of the evolution towards distributed human resources and a business landscape dominated by strategic partnerships. The development of sustainable competitive advantage for a firm and its strategic partners would be its operational focus, with “best practices” and excellence the underlying theme and wealth creation as the ultimate common goal. We also need to examine new and innovative ways of organizing to do this “knowledge work”. One of these new models has emerged from this case study that looks at a more temporary project focus of software teams, than a more traditional “permanent” organizational structure. By supporting a virtual “network of innovation” to connect centers of technical and business excellence, universities, the public and private sector could play a critical role in addressing the knowledge gap which will increasingly limit growth in a knowledge-based economy.