Successful entrepreneurship in bioeconomics requires new approach: imagination

Innovation in bioeconomics requires a specific approach. The implementation of new bioproducts demands imagination and the realization of new markets requires ambitious and powerful entrepreneurs. The imagination of entrepreneurs especially leads to real innovations in bioeconomics, according to prof. R.J.F. van Haren’s inaugural speech on 3 February (4.15 p.m.) Van Haren is professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business and holds a chair in Product Innovation and Knowledge Transfer in Agribusiness.

The chair was created in response to the central role of Agribusiness in the transition to a green economy and the position of the north of the Netherlands in this process.

The European Union and the Netherlands aim at stimulating the transition to a biobased economy or a bioeconomy. Policy measures have been developed to enhance technological innovation for existing markets. An important example is the development of new transport fuels, the first and second generation bioethanol and biodiesel, that can replace a part of the existing mineral oil markets by a simple procedure of mixing. The introduction of these biotransport fuels strongly depends on the oil prices and government policy. The transport fuel markets are highly versatile, which makes investments risky. These risks can be quantified on the basis of experience and expectations. This helps investors make decisions on the basis of calculated risk and expected returns and realize necessary innovation by exploitation of knowledge.

The situation is different for innovations in bioeconomics for which there is no market yet and for which technologies are mostly absent. Entrepreneurs have to create their own market and their own products at the same time. Risks, returns and specific goals cannot or can hardly be quantified. Established management approaches and instruments prove to be unsuitable in these situations. Entrepreneurs then have to decide on different grounds, on the basis of available means, permitted risk and exploration of possibilities during the course of innovation. They adjust their goals and eventually realize new markets by means of strategic cooperation. This is a matter of effectuation. The implementation of new products therefore demands imagination and the realization of new markets requires ambitious powerful entrepreneurs. This imagination of entrepreneurs leads to real innovations in bioeconomics.

See also:

News 4-2-08: Rob van Haren Professor of Product Innovation and Knowledge Transfer in Agribusiness

Inaugural speech: prof.dr.ir. R.J.F. van Haren
Time and place: 4.15 p.m., Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen
Title: Beeldkracht voor bio-economie (Imagination for bioeconomics)
Chair: Product Innovation and Knowledge Transfer in Agribusiness