Developing Supportive Entrepreneurial Universities in Support of Business Scalability: Education and knowledge exchange as regenerative action
As rich sources of contextual or universally beneficial knowledge, expertise, and invention, universities continue to be fundamental to regions and nations towards economic, technological, and social development (Bjørnskov and Foss, 2016; Acs et al., 2018; Urbano et al., 2019; Aparicio et al., 2023). Today’s universities, albeit navigating ever-present challenges (Crammond, 2020), embrace change and volatility through responsive, enterprising, and research-informed activities (Hytti et al., 2018; Williams Middleton et al., 2020). This is partly through its engagement with business communities (Von Graevenitz et al., 2010; Powell, 2012; Crammond, 2024) and wider society (Cooney and Murray, 2008), transferring knowledge, and contributing to sectors through start-ups, spinouts and scalable businesses by its students, staff, and alumni connections (Bell and Bell, 2016; Secundo et al., 2017; Crammond, 2023).
Universities exist with an overarching objective of being transformational for individuals, societies, and nations overall (Bauman and Lucy, 2021; Cui and Bell, 2022). Additionally, from an organisational perspective, creative collaborations and precise partnerships between universities and industries, which span practical disciplines and professions, lead to significant developments and outcomes (Jones and Ratten, 2021; Theodoraki et al., 2022).
In their engagement with aspirational business, must be able to evidence impact as members of entrepreneurial ecosystems. This includes guiding businesses, pooling and the sharing of functional, conceptual, international, and digital expertise (Linzalone et al., 2020; Spigel et al., 2020), and inspire continuous, fresh creativity and innovation.
This Special Issue aims to highlight the impact of universities towards scalable businesses, their current roles and responsibilities, educational and cultural considerations affecting the organisational context, and both the witnessed dynamics and appreciated perspectives within entrepreneurial ecosystems.
List of topic areas
The Special Issue welcomes high quality submissions which aim to address the related challenges and highlight opportunities within the researched field, as well as in practice and related policy. Relevant themes and topics which would be of interest to this Special Issue include, but are not restricted to, the following:
Theme 1: The University Context
• The intervention of the university on the entrepreneurial process, or business scale up activities
• Advanced forms of enterprising education and business/external engagement, from the university
• New venture creation and knowledge management, within the ecosystem environment
• Developmental measures and mechanisms which support and progress university-based business and ecosystem support
• The role of universities towards social and sustainable entrepreneurship, and the development of financial, physical, human, and intellectual capital
Theme 2: The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
• Witnessed behaviour and proclivities within, and as a result of entrepreneurship ecosystems and knowledge spillovers
• Exploratory investigations of entrepreneurial ecosystems, innovative institutions, and influenced business scalability
• Theoretical developments concerning entrepreneurial institutions as change agents, stakeholder appreciations, and the intersection of education and entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial strategies
Theme 3: Organisational and Intrapreneurial Perspectives
• (Renewed) organisational cultures, through entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial activity and processes
• Enlightened (small) business adoption, or adaptation of advancing technologies (such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), business modelling, product design, and developmental programming etc.), contributing to dynamic capabilities, aided by universities within intrapreneurial contexts and organisational structures
Submissions Information
Submissions are made using Scholar One Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijebr
Guest Editors
Dr Robert James Crammond
Senior Lecturer in Enterprise, University of the West of Scotland, UK
[email protected]
Dr Trudie Murray
Lecturer in Entrepreneurship & Economics, Munster Technological University, Cork, Ireland
[email protected]
Prof. Robin Bell
Professor in Entrepreneurship, University of Worcester, UK
[email protected]
Key Deadlines
Call for Abstracts: Friday 10th January 2025
Email for submission queries: [email protected]
Opening date for manuscript submissions: Monday 2nd December 2024
Closing date for manuscript submissions: Monday 2nd June 2025
For more details refer here
