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Guest Editors:

James A. Cunningham, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, United Kingdom.
Maribel Guerrero, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, United Kingdom.
Magnus Klofsten, Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Sweden
Simon Mosey, The Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Nottingham University Business School, United Kingdom
David Urbano, Department of Business, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Background:

The role of universities is receiving increased attention by academics and policy makers as a key determinant in economic development and social welfare. Certain universities have gained attention through designing and developing entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems. Through generating new and sustainable models to create societal, technological and economic value they have realised innovative outcomes across the three missions of teaching via human capital; research via knowledge capital; and technology transfer via entrepreneurship capital However, this phenomena remains relatively unexplored and requires the adoption of different theoretical/methodological approaches, in several contexts, and using different levels of analysis. In particular, clearer analytical frameworks considering time and place are required to better understand the co-evolution of key stakeholders in this domain. According to the entrepreneurship literature, entrepreneurship ecosystems involve a set of individual, organizational, industry and environmental elements such as leadership, dynamic capabilities, culture, capital markets, networks, and open-minded customers that combine in complex ways. The entrepreneurial ecosystem is an interconnected set of entrepreneurial actors, and organisations that are part of any entrepreneurial process that determines the entrepreneurial environment of their localities or territories. Studies of innovation ecosystems however, focus on the complex relationships of cooperation, communication, and feedback among distinct organisations. The ecosystem supporting a university is composed of educational programmes, infrastructures, regulations, culture as well as relationships with distinct organisations such as government, investors, industry and other socio-economic agents. It therefore, exhibits characteristics of both entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems to support the university community in the identification, development and commercialization of innovative and entrepreneurial initiatives. The analysis of this inter-connexion is relevant because both types of ecosystems regulate the nature and the quality of entrepreneurial activity by shaping rewards linked to opportunity identification and generation and the pursuit of new organisational forms and strategies. The emergence of university entrepreneurial ecosystems is relevant given the most recent worldwide economic downturn and socio-economic events. Universities are also facing challenges such as higher rates of unemployment, the reduction of public budgets, reduction in the demand of higher education studies, to name but a few. Under this new socio-economic landscape, entrepreneurial and innovation university ecosystems try to connect teaching/research activities with real practices/challenges in their organisations; and where their students and researchers not only captures new knowledge but also participate in the strengthening of local socio-economic development.

This call for papers expects not just single cases but also multilevel, longitudinal and comparative analyses that add value to the ongoing academic debate surrounding academic entrepreneurship, economic, societal and technological contributions of universities, and individual/organizational/institutional factors affecting entrepreneurial universities, conceptual clarification of entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystems. This includes the nature and effectiveness of higher entrepreneurship education in preparing students to become successful (intra)entrepreneurs, new/adequate research methods in entrepreneurship, higher education graduate employability and regional collaboration between firms in a Penta Helix context; firms, academy, the public sector, labour organisations and civil society actors. In sum, to understand entrepreneurial and innovation higher education ecosystems it is necessary to explore conceptually and empirically themes such as (but not limited to):


In addressing these issues, we seek novel conceptual/theoretical (adopting different perspectives) and empirical (using different methodological approaches) contributions with relevant implications for university, policy makers, and stakeholders across the globe (cities, regions or country level).

The paper submission deadline is 30 March 2018 and the journal submission site will be open for submissions from 19 February 2018. The Special Issue is scheduled to be published in November 2019. Papers must be original and comply with ISBJ submission guidelines. Please refer http://isb.sagepub.com/ for submission guidelines and a link to the on-line submission system. In the online system please ensure you submit your paper within Manuscript Type: Special Issue: Entrepreneurial and Innovative HEEE.

Questions and informal enquiries should be directed to:

Maribel Guerrero [maribel.guerrero@northumbria.ac.uk], or
Simon Mosey [simon.mosey@nottingham.ac.uk]