On Valuing Science-Based Business Ventures

Investigation on performativity in entrepreneurial finance carried out within the context of the PERFORMABUSINESS research project draws in part from the insights accumulated by team members in previous research. This is particularly the case for Liliana Doganova’s recent book, Valoriser la Science: Les Partenariats des Start-Up Technologiques [Valuing Science: The Partnerships of High-Tech Start-Ups], which just got out from Presses des Mines. Liliana tackles there the case of academic spin-offs from an openly pragmatist angle.

Academic spin-offs are new ventures stemming from universities and other public research organizations. The creation of such spin-offs has been greatly encouraged in Europe in the last ten years, in order to enhance the “transfer” and “valorization” of science. The results of such policies now appear to be disappointing, because spin-offs have not generated the hoped-for new jobs and success stories. This book hence starts with the following question: what are spin-offs worth? How can one conceive of their role and capture their impact?

Addressing these questions, the book operates several shifts, one of which is of particular interest for PERFORMABUSINESS. To understand what spin-offs are worth, suggests Liliana, let us take a look at how the actors with whom they come to cooperate value them. The how in question refers in particular to the valuation devices that start-ups and their (would-be) partners devise and mobilize in their endeavors to construct explorative partnerships, make them hold, and coordinate collective action. The last chapter of this book embarks on the investigation of three types of valuation devices – models, demonstrations, and formulae – and sheds light on their performative action. It thus opens a path that Liliana has decided to pursue as part of her research in PERFORMABUSINESS.