This article extends social entrepreneurship (SE) research by drawing upon a critical realist perspective to analyse dynamic structure/agency relations in SE opportunity emergence, illustrated by empirical evidence. Our findings demonstrate an agential aspect (opportunity actualisation following a path-dependent seeding-growing-shaping process) and a structural aspect (institutional, cognitive and embedded structures necessary for SE opportunity emergence) related to SE opportunities. These structures provide three boundary conditions for SE agency: institutional discrimination, an SE belief system and social feasibility. Within this article, we develop a novel theoretical framework to analyse SE opportunities plus, an applicable tool to advance related empirical research.
The UK government's ‘Third Mission’ for Higher Education (2000) encourages universities to teach entrepreneurship to ‘STEM’ students (those studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics), in part to support the technology transfer agenda. Technology-based entrepreneurship education (TEE) incorporates the key elements of entrepreneurship education (EE), concentrating on the creation of economic value from technological change. In this paper, the key challenges associated with EE and TEE are outlined, and the authors propose that the way to meet these challenges is through a systematic process that takes a technology from an initial idea in the laboratory to full commercialization as a high-growth firm. The ‘Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Algorithm’ developed at North Carolina State University (NCSU) offers such a framework for multidisciplinary teams. The paper describes why and how the Algorithm was adapted for use at Loughborough University (LU). The focus is on the educational and business objectives of the programme and the extent to which those objectives have been achieved. The paper thus makes a contribution to the TEE literature by spelling out specific challenges, discussing a potential solution to these challenges and thereby adding to our understanding of the linkages between education, innovation and entrepreneurship.
The author describes her personal experience and insights on Portugal as a German artist who has lived and worked worldwide. She observes the changes from her first arrival during the European Football Championship in 2004, the experience of the WebSummit and various exhibitions in Portuguese Museums, up to the COVID-19 confinement and reopening in 2022. She tells the story of 18 years of development of the country, its tourism and economy, the spiritual path, and also the “zen exercises” the community has and had to offer: getting lost in Lisbon, finding faith in Fatima, sanctuaries in Santarem, and tabernacles in Tomar, as Portugal became her literal port of the grail (Port-u-gal). From children to education, poetry, prose, science, food, art, and religion, she paints a picture from the view of a foreigner mingling with the Portuguese and the ex-pat community. Isolated in the countryside during COVID-19, she connected online with Portuguese artists and created new alliances.
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