Intellectual Capital in the Entrepreneurial University: Theory and Practice

Introduction

Universities are increasingly expected to act as entrepreneurial institutions that create value beyond teaching and research through entrepreneurship education, knowledge exchange, technology transfer, academic spin-offs, and wider ecosystem engagement (Abreu and Grinevich, 2025; Passaro et al., 2018). However, the mechanisms through which these activities generate economic and societal value remain insufficiently understood, particularly across the full pathway from capability formation to third-mission and regional impact (Yin et al., 2023; Romano et al., 2025). Existing research often examines entrepreneurship education, academic entrepreneurship, university-industry-society collaboration, and ecosystem development in relative isolation, while practice still relies heavily on narrow indicators such as patents, licences, spin-off counts, or commercialisation income (Holgersson & Aaboen, 2019; Leendertse et al., 2022).

This Special Issue addresses that gap by positioning intellectual capital (IC) as the integrative lens through which the entrepreneurial university can be better understood. In particular, it invites contributions examining how human, structural, and relational capital are created, mobilised, measured, governed, and secured across the entrepreneurial university value chain (de Frutos-Belizón et al., 2019; Kashyap & Agrawal, 2020; Renaud et al., 2019). We are interested in work that connects IC with academic entrepreneurship research and entrepreneurship practice, including opportunity recognition, venture development and scaling, technology transfer office routines, incubator and accelerator support, entrepreneurial pedagogy, and ecosystem orchestration (Aldawod, 2022; Yin et al., 2023; Romano et al., 2025).

We welcome contributions from scholars in intellectual capital, entrepreneurship, innovation management, higher education, public policy, regional development, and related fields. We also particularly encourage submissions that speak to practice and policy, and that show how IC can improve the design, governance, evaluation, and impact of entrepreneurial universities.

We particularly welcome theoretically ambitious and methodologically plural submissions, including comparative, multi-level, longitudinal, mixed-method, network-analytic, text/data-analytic, design-oriented, and field-evaluative studies. Practice-informed submissions are also encouraged, especially where they engage with entrepreneurship educators, TTOs, incubators, ecosystem intermediaries, or policy actors. 

List of Topic Areas

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial mindset development as intellectual capital formation
• Curriculum design, educator roles, and innovative approaches in entrepreneurship education
• Digital and AI-enabled entrepreneurship education as structural capital
• Academic entrepreneurship and the micro-foundations of entrepreneurial intellectual capital
• Technology transfer offices as intellectual capital management mechanisms
• Intellectual capital, spin-offs, and venture creation in university context
• University-industry-society collaboration and IC-mediated innovation performance
• Incubators, accelerators, science parks, and entrepreneurial support infrastructures
• Entrepreneurial ecosystems around universities and ecosystem-level intellectual capital
• Third-mission impact measurement, reporting, and evaluation through IC frameworks
• Practitioner metrics, policy frameworks, and the measurement of knowledge exchange
• Securing intellectual capital in entrepreneurial universities, including IP governance, data governance, cyber risk, and knowledge leakage
• International and comparative studies of entrepreneurial university models
• Multi-level, longitudinal, mixed-method, and engaged research designs in IC and entrepreneurship

Submission Information

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Author guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Dates

Opening date for manuscript submissions: 1 June 2026

Closing date for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026

References

Abreu, M., & Grinevich, V. (2025). Role of universities in early graduate entrepreneurship: Enablers or constrainers of ‘missing’ entrepreneurs? Regional Studies, 59(1), 2532585. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2025.2532585

Aldawod, A. (2022). A framework for the opportunity recognition process in UK entrepreneurial universities. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 175, 121386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121386

de Frutos-Belizón, J., Martín-Alcázar, F., & Sánchez-Gardey, G. (2019). Conceptualizing academic intellectual capital: Definition and proposal of a measurement scale. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 20(3), 306–334. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-09-2018-0152

Holgersson, M., & Aaboen, L. (2019). A literature review of intellectual property management in technology transfer offices: From appropriation to utilization. Technology in Society, 59, 101132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2019.04.008

Kashyap, A., & Agrawal, R. (2020). Scale development and modeling of intellectual property creation capability in higher education. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 21(1), 115–138. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-09-2018-0168

Leendertse, J., Schrijvers, M. T., & Stam, E. (2022). Measure twice, cut once: Entrepreneurial ecosystem metrics. Research Policy, 51(9), 104336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2021.104336

Passaro, R., Quinto, I., & Thomas, A. (2018). The impact of higher education on entrepreneurial intention and human capital. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 19(1), 135–156. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-04-2017-0056

Renaud, K., von Solms, B., & von Solms, R. (2019). How does intellectual capital align with cyber security? Journal of Intellectual Capital, 20(5), 621–641. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-04-2019-0079

Romano, M., Cunningham, J. A., Cuttone, G., Munnia, A., & Nicotra, M. (2025). Intellectual capital-based research impact management: A strategic approach to increase regional intellectual capital. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 26(7), 24–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-04-2024-0115

Yin, X., Li, F., Chen, J., & Zhai, Y. (2023). Innovating from university–industry collaboration: The mediating role of intellectual capital. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 24(6), 1550–1577. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-10-2022-0207