BM-QFD: an approach to technology entrepreneurship in creating academic spin-offs

How to design new products and services in a context of an emergent industry based on cutting-edge science and technology? Current literature on product development and innovation management has long been biased by highlystructured methods oriented to support large-sized established companies operating in known (or knowable) markets, whilst technology entrepreneurship studies are gaining increasing attention in the last years offering more flexible approaches based on a build-measure-learn predominant logic. However, science and technology (S&T)-intensive products and services intended to explore completely new industries (such as those emerging from the nanomaterials field) seem to be poorly served by available approaches since they might share a few of the assumptions behind them. This study contributes to this field by proposing the BM-QFD as a methodological approach to support the design and development of S&T-intensive services. Based on the principles of Design Science Research and the genuine demand of a new venture in the science instruments business, a graphene nanometrology service is designed based on TERS -a special technique that applies cutting-edge technology which is essential for the development of nanotechnology. The service design was conducted by adapting well-established methods from the new product/service development literature in combination with those coming from the entrepreneurship field. The resulting proposal is, however, innovative concerning how such methods combine and complement each other in face of the particularities of developing S&T academic spin-offs.