The
Motiva network came into being in Valencia in 1999 as a consequence of a post-graduate
course offered as part of the Alfa programme and with the help of a Presidency grant from the Valencian Regional Government. Motiva Training
trainers for business start-ups was a two-month course attended by a score
of people from Latin American universities (Guanajuato in Mexico, Mar del Plata
in Argentina, the ITCR in Costa Rica and Concepción in Chile, among others).
The participants stayed in Valencia and took part in the different seven-hour-long
daily sessions. Other participants in the course included members of Universitat
de València (mainly teaching staff), some programme directors (Business
Innovation Centre, CEEI), and lecturers from a number of European universities.
Although the Alfa programme was a cooperation programme, the selection criterion
was based on the capacity of participants to go one step ahead and implement
programmes derived from what they had learned.
The
network has thus remained active and successive annual meetings have been held
in Mar del Plata (Argentina) in 2000, Concepción (Chile) in 2001 and Cartago
(Costa Rica) in 2002. Plans are already under way for a new meeting in
Guanajuato (Mexico) in 2003 and the Network’s fifth anniversary encounter will
be held in Valencia in 2004. These seminars have enabled the Network to go on
maturing.
Likewise
and with regard to dissemination, the Latin American universities have got a
series of different programmes under way that cover issues involving purely
academic aspects, the transfer of information and experiences, research,
business start-ups, fostering entrepreneurship, together with others that are
linked with the aims of the network. These latter include the introduction of
academic subjects dealing with starting up businesses in degree courses at these
universities, taking part in projects or research work about this issue or
helping to set up feasible entrepreneurial projects.
It
is, then, a consolidated Network that is fulfilling its objectives, in which
Universitat de València plays an important promoting role. As there are at
present very few networks that deal with common initiatives concerning these
issues, and even fewer between Spain and Latin American countries, it is of
vital importance to support a project that can be considered to be an innovation,
given the topicality of the matters deliberated in the meetings.
The
phenomenon of business start-ups and entrepreneurship is in vogue. Initiatives
to favour business start-ups are continually being implemented in all areas and
at all levels of society. But we are reaching a situation in which the
appearance of new initiatives has begun to slow down; the Administration and the
University as well as the private sector have started to rehash the same old
topics, which often fail to contribute anything new to the phenomenon. However,
since the current impetus lies in Central and South America, we have no choice
but to make the most of it. The Motiva Network was set up with a resolute
objective – that of allowing the different experiences and knowledge
concerning BUSINESS START-UPS and ENTREPRENEURSHIP that may occur around the
university, as an institution, to be shared. At the same time it should also
make it possible to determine what phenomena and actions could be successfully
undertaken, by means of studies and analyses conducted at each university, so
that we could all benefit from the synergetic effect produced by these meetings.
Promoting
business start-ups, and especially those involving innovating businesses, is a
key socioeconomic aim for society in the Valencian Community, in Spain, in
Europe and in Latin America. This is the reason why our aim is to use the MOTIVA
NETWORK to generate employment and wealth, as well as a means of strategically
fostering emerging sectors that may become real economic engines.
The philosophy of the MOTIVA Network
The
MOTIVA NETWORK emphasizes the use of training schemes based on “learning by
doing”, bearing in mind the fact that the training process is systematic and
permanent, and is not carried out solely in the classroom nor does it end there.
Each day new ideas about how to learn and how to share new knowledge are
considered in order to improve. Finally, new options and strategies are
formulated to stimulate the training of new entrepreneurs within the new
paradigms of quality, productivity and competitiveness.
One
of the profiles that is best suited to starting up businesses is that of
university students who, after completing their training in the innovative
aspects of the technical or management fields, become entrepreneurs and start up
their own firm. They then act as transfer agents between the scientific-university
community and the business environment of their country.
Since
the MOTIVA NETWORK includes several Latin American universities and its
objective is to promote an enterprising culture as a mechanism that contributes
to the social development of our countries, the main activities to be carried
out will be linked with pooling the progress and developments being made in our
universities with regard to entrepreneurship and business start-ups. Likewise,
the ventures being undertaken by the Universities in each country to bring the
real entrepreneurial situation and its circumstances closer to the field of
higher education, and vice versa, will be set out and discussed. Thus, students
taking part in those programmes have the chance to become aware of the
advantages that proper training in business start-ups and entrepreneurship can
have in their business activities in the future.
Organizations/Universities that belong to the MOTIVA Network and
representatives
U.
Guanajuato (Guanajuato, México); U. Concepción (Concepción,
Chile); Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (Cartago, Costa Rica); U.
Nacional de Mar del Plata (Mar del Plata, Argentina); U. Metropolitana (Caracas,
Venezuela); U. Central (Caracas, Venezuela); U. Antioquia (Medellín, Colombia);
U. Panamá (Panamá); U. Latina de Costa Rica.
Lines of research to be developed in the future
A
comparison of the indices of entrepreneurial motivation among countries,
centres, knowledge areas and educational models. A geographical analysis of
entrepreneurial motivation.
The profile of the would-be entrepreneur. Discriminating models for quantifying the importance of each characteristic.
The aspects that
determine motivation. The construction of statistical models for the indices of
motivation.
The progression of the
indices over time. Their relation with environmental variables.
Institutional Coordinator: Ramón Torcal Tomás
Executive coordinator: Salvador Roig (Dept. of Business Management “Juan José Renau Piqueras”)
Representative researchers: Domingo Ribeiro, Ramón Torcal, Amparo de la Torre, Elvira Cerver (Dept.
of Business Management “Juan José Renau
Piqueras”)