University support systems for sustainable entrepreneurship: insights from explorative case studies

The Role of Social and Institutional Contexts in Social Innovations of Spanish Academic Spinoffs

“…Within academic entrepreneurship literature, recent studies are emphasizing the relevant role that universities may have in developing and promoting mechanisms that support the creation and development of social innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship [3][4][5][6][7]37]. In line with this argument, Tiemann et al [46] argued that universities have internalized a third central role aimed at developing and supporting innovations oriented towards social challenges. ASOs constitutes one of the main mechanisms used by universities to promote and develop social innovations.…”

“…On the other hand, another relevant argument that justifies the social commitment of ASOs is that, given that these companies are usually publicly funded, this investment is expected to make a return to society in the form of solving social problems from a sustainability point of view [4]. In recent years, national and international governments have become aware of the need to finance entrepreneurship activities derived from universities that are addressed to achieving sustainable economic growth and solving fundamental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity [8,46]. In this vein, the commercialization of the knowledge bases of ASOs stands at the forefront for policy-makers of the European Union, as may be reflected in the United Nations' social development goals and in the Europe Union's program Horizon 2020 [4,6].…”

“…Indeed, accordingly, universities are increasingly aware of the need to include aspects related to sustainability in their training plans in order to educate future social entrepreneurs, which is reflected in their strategic plans' priority areas related to corporate social responsibility and financing the creation of firms aimed at developing social innovations [37]. Moreover, universities are providing appropriate systems and infrastructures to guide academic entrepreneurs toward the commercialization of science and technology from a social and sustainable perspective [46]. In line with this argument, Tekula et al [8] found that universities are creating specific centers to support entrepreneurial initiatives developed by students and researchers, addressed at solving social problems from a sustainability perspective.…”

“…Therefore, universities may play a pivotal role within the entrepreneurial ecosystem in promoting sustainability principles and thus contribute to the paradigm shift toward more sustainable development through ASOs [50]. As Tiemann et al [46] (p. 88) stated, university support for sustainable entrepreneurship and the development of social innovation "is relevant to help students, researchers, and university teachers develop their entrepreneurial skills and start new ventures, and to help external economic actors develop and establish green products and sustainable business models".…”

Sustainable Entrepreneurship Team Scale Development: A Complex Systems Perspective

“…Over the past decade, a vast amount of scholarly work has examined various aspects of sustainable entrepreneurship, including sustainable entrepreneurs' (SEs') intention and motivation [12][13][14][15][16], SEs' competency [17][18][19], SEs' values [20], SEs' knowledge [5,21], sustainable entrepreneurial opportunity [1,2,[22][23][24], the context for SE [9,[25][26][27][28], success factors for SE [29,30], ways to promote SE [31][32][33][34][35], etc. Although prior studies are insightful, they mainly focus on individual-and/or organization-level factors, albeit the fact that most startups are launched with a group of people [36].…”