Leveraging knowledge as a competitive asset? The intensity, performance and structure of universities’ entrepreneurial knowledge exchange activities at a regional level

Abstract

Universities are no longer considered to be isolated islands of knowledge, but as institutions increasingly engaged with a range of external partners through entrepreneurial activities. This paper examines the associations between the intensity and performance of knowledge exchange activities undertaken in UK universities with non-academic actors. Drawing on data concerning the structural factors of interactions of universities in the UK with external partners, the paper sheds further light on the nature of these activities through a prism of competitive and uncompetitive regions in order to better understand how universities may be able to leverage both their knowledge and partnerships more effectively as competitive assets. On the one hand, it is found that academics in uncompetitive regions are more intensively engaged in entrepreneurial activities but generate less income from them than their counterparts in competitive regions, suggesting that there are differences in the income-generating capacity of academics across regions. On the other hand, academic knowledge is found to be more strongly bounded within a certain distance in uncompetitive regions whilst geographical distance seems less of a hindrance to academics in competitive regions.

Entrepreneurial universities: emerging models in the new social and economic landscape

“…According to Zhang et al (2016), extant studies have examined the best practices of entrepreneurial knowledge exchange activities within higher education sector. However, there is a lack of recognition of the difficulty of transplanting models of entrepreneurial universities engagement with business and society from successful regions to weaker regions.…”

University–industry cooperation: A systematic literature review and research agenda

“…Thus, an entrepreneurial economy creates environments in which its members can exploit opportunities and knowledge to promote entrepreneurial phenomena not envisioned previously (Sam and van der Sijde 2014). Through their mission of cooperation with the business community, universities are no longer considered isolated islands of knowledge but, instead, institutions increasingly involved with a number of external partners through business activities (Zhang et al 2016a). However, the growing literature on cooperation between universities and industries finds that divergent attitudes between these entities often create major obstacles to more fruitful collaborations (Styhre and Lind 2010;Abreu et al 2016).…”

“…Future studies of entrepreneurial universities and their role in new social and economic landscapes should pay attention to the influence of the characteristics of the regions in which these institutions are located. Researchers need to examine local economic and social contexts to gain a better understanding of the impact and potential of universities (Zhang et al 2016b). As far as strategic alliances for innovation are concerned, one area of interest would be to analyse more closely how collaborative links develop initially, so future research could focus on the process of partner selection and the way these innovation partnerships function.…”

Regional Innovation Systems and University Competitiveness

“…Jiao et al (2016) present the idea that the concept of regional innovation systems consists of two parts: the regional production structure or knowledge exploitation subsystem (mainly firms), and the regional supportive infrastructure or knowledge generation subsystem (public and private research laboratories, universities and colleges, technology transfer agencies, vocational training organizations, and other research organizations). Universities are important actors within these systems of regional innovation, especially in providing knowledge for the business and the community (Minola et al 2016;Zhang et al 2016) and eventually in shaping the competitive profile of nations and regions.…”

“…Nowadays, the higher education policy is directed towards more entrepreneurial management, including innovation activities and development of institutional relations, establishment of joint research schemes, user innovation networks and university-to-business relations (Yordanova, 2018), as well as different joint programs for improving university performance as a relevant factor in shaping competitiveness in each specific region (Guerrero et al 2014;Jiao et al 2016;Jurášková et al 2015;Zhang et al 2016). The current transition to the knowledge-based economy and adaptation to constant environmental changes created the concept of "the entrepreneurial university", characterized by innovation through its research, knowledge exchange and external relations (Vătămănescu et al 2016).…”