Sustainable Wealth Creation beyond Shareholder Value

Abstract

The university can be a place for generating returns on investments—returns that are both financial and of other nature. This chapter investigates an approach in which action-based masters-level education is integrated into university venture creation. The approach is resided at Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship (CSE) and Göteborg International Bioscience Business School (GIBBS) in Sweden. The purpose of the schools is to champion ideas into viable investment opportunities through a combination of venture development and entrepreneurial training. The schools promote the responsible utilization and commercialization of primarily university-based research ideas in the fields of technology and bioscience. They also package ideas stemming from individual inventors or from firms. This approach accommodates promising ideas and research results that are not so “low-hanging” as to be championed into start-ups. All this is done while shaping aspirant entrepreneurs during their masters-level education. Many of these aspirants will continue running the venture beyond its incorporation into a firm and often through several rounds of venture capital financing. This approach will be described and analyzed as an innovative way of accomplishing multiple returns on investments that contribute to sustainable development in several ways.