UNIVERSITY RESEARCH, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND EUROPEAN INNOVATION SYSTEMS

Abstract This paper surveys the literature on university patenting. From the point of view of the economic theory of patents, it is argued that patenting knowledge developed by university researchers is paradoxical: patents are normally intended to stimulate knowledge development by providing property rights, but universities operate also under a different incentive scheme, i.e. they receive public funds to perform socially useful knowledge. In the debate surrounding the so‐called Bayh‐Dole Act in the USA, it has, however, been argued that patents on university inventions may be necessary to stimulate technology transfer from universities to private firms. The first part of the paper addresses two major questions. First, what is the economic logic of Bayh‐Dole, and, second, what were the effects on universities and the knowledge they develop? In the second part, the paper addresses the issue of whether ‘Bayh‐Dole‐like’ legislation would be beneficial for European countries. In a number of European countries, a suggestion has been made that this could enhance knowledge transfer from the public to the private sector. Using a new database resulting from a survey among patent inventors in six European countries, an assessment is given of the degree of university patenting in Europe. Because university researchers are often involved in patented inventions without the university being listed as a patent applicant, statistics based on the patent office databases alone often underestimate university patenting in Europe. The paper ends with a discussion of how this ‘European practice’ of university patenting affects public–private knowledge transfer in Europe, and how this compares to the effects of the Bayh‐Dole Act in the USA.     

Situated regional university incubation: A multi-level stakeholder perspective

From a macro perspective, it is widely acknowledged that University incubation models within a region are important stimulants of economic development through innovation and job creation. With the emergence of quadruple helix innovation ecosystems, universities have had re-evaluate their University incubation activity and models to engage more fully with industry and end users. However, within a given region, the type of University may influence their ability to engage with quadruple helix stakeholders and consequently impact their incubation activity. To date there is a scarcity of research which explores this 'meso' environment and its subsequent impact on University incubation models. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to use a stakeholder lens to explore University Incubation models within unique regional and organisational characteristics and constraints. The research methodology employed was based on a comparative case analysis of incubation of two different Universities within a UK peripheral region. It was found that variances existed in relation to the two universities incubation models which were found to result from both regional (macro environment) and organisational (meso environment) influences (i.e. university type). This research contributes to both regional and national agendas by empirically illustrating the need for appropriate design and tailoring of university incubation models (via acknowledgement of quadruple helix stakeholder influence) to incorporate contextual influences rather than adopting a best practise approach.     

Multilevel IRT models for the analysis of satisfaction for distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic played a relevant role in the diffusion of distance learning alternatives to “traditional” learning based on classroom activities, to allow university students to continue attending lessons during the most severe phases of the pandemic. In such a context, investigating the students' perspective on distance learning provides useful information to stakeholders to improve effective educational strategies, which could be useful also after the end of the emergency to favor the digital transformation in the higher educational setting.Here we focus on the satisfaction in distance learning for Italian university students. We rely on data comprising students enrolled in various Italian universities, which were inquired about several aspects related to learning distance.We explicitly take into account the hierarchical nature of data (i.e., students nested in universities) and the latent nature of the variable of interest (i.e., students' learning satisfaction) through a multilevel Item Response Theory model with students' and universities' covariates.As the main results of our study, we find out that distance learning satisfaction of students: (i) depends on the University where they study; (ii) is affected by some students' socio-demographic characteristics, among which psychological factors related to Covid-19; (iii) is affected by some observable university characteristics.     

Exploring alternative approaches in high-level entrepreneurship education: creating micromechanisms for endogenous regional growth

Entrepreneurship is widely regarded as instrumental in economic growth, a balanced regional development and for creating jobs. To fulfil what is called their ‘third obligation’, universities are expected to contribute by research, teaching and transfer of technology. Entrepreneurial education is one of the responses to the realities. For the field of entrepreneurship, the enhanced status may seem welcome. However, there is a downside, related to the at times nebulous conceptual and efficacy notions of entrepreneurship and its education, breeding unreasonable and unpredictable expectations. This paper explores alternative strategies in university-based entrepreneurial education, describing, as a starting point, the dominant pattern of education, based on an individual-centred mindset. Further, it is argued that by conceptualizing the university as a regional evolution mechanism, a different yet parallel educational strategy may be suggested, called a business generating model. Its aim is to foster the necessary conditions for new ventures and for the strategic expansion of regional SMEs: the emergence and fusion of viable business concepts, entrepreneurial actors, resources and a munificent environment. It is suggested that educational applications based on this logic might be effective for meeting the new demands. The paper concludes by discussing some of the contingency issues related to the two broad models.     

Founding team composition and early performance of university—Based spin-off companies

The start-up of business ventures (university spin-offs—USOs) is an important channel that universities can use to transfer the results of public research to the economic system.Several empirical investigations however show that the majority of public-research spin-offs perform rather poorly (see for example Mustar et al., 2008. Science and Public Policy 35(2), 67–80). Therefore, identifying and analysing the obstacles that limit the success of this type of high-tech start-ups appears extremely important to better understand and, where possible, leverage their potential contributions in terms of innovation and growth.The existing literature on the performance of USOs studies these companies as any other high-tech start up, overlooking the peculiarities related to the presence of academic personnel in the entrepreneurial/management team. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by analysing the relationship between founding teams and USO performance through a multi-level approach to the team demography. In particular, we try to account for some of the peculiar features which may shape the functioning of USO founding teams and arise mostly from the need to properly balance the scientific and commercial orientation with one another. The empirical analysis, carried out on a sample of 103 Italian USOs, shows that founding teams with a composition that promotes simultaneously differentiation and integration of academic and non-academic profiles, exhibit superior levels of performance in terms of growth.     

Millennials and Boomers: increasing alumni affinity and intent to give by target market segmentation

This paper reports on research that seeks to improve our understanding of issues that impact upon the philanthropic gifts of university alumni. Prior research has examined such alumni characteristics as wealth and affinity to the alma mater. Such findings have guided development professionals to conduct different kinds of research that can reveal aspects of affluence (e.g., real estate holdings and professional positions) and institutional engagement (e.g., membership in alumni associations and season tickets to sporting events). This information is housed in databases that can be accessed by the fundraisers. The current research seeks to extend our understanding by examining the potential differences between generations. This article examines survey responses from university alumni in two age cohorts from two large comprehensive universities in the USA. Respondents were asked questions that inquired about their affinity toward their alma mater, intentions to give as well as alumni interest in participating in or attending different events at the university. Significant differences between younger and older alumni were found within each topic. From these results, the importance of market research and applications of alumni segmentation specifically are discussed for administrators and advancement professionals. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Research performance evaluation of Chinese university: A non-homogeneous network DEA approach

Performance evaluation for universities or research institutions has become a hot topic in recent years. However, the previous works rarely investigate the multiple departments’ performance of a university, and especially, none of them consider the non-homogeneity among the universities’ departments. In this paper, we develop data envelopment analysis (DEA) models to evaluate the performance of general non-homogeneous decision making units (DMUs) with two-stage network structures and then apply them to a university in China. Specifically, the first stage is faculty research process, and the second stage is student research process. We first spit each DMU (i.e. department) into a combination of several mutually exclusive maximal input subgroups and output subgroups in terms of their homogeneity in both stages. Then an additive DEA model is proposed to evaluate the performance of the overall efficiency of the non-homogeneous DMUs with two-stage network structure. By analyzing the empirical results, some implications are provided to support the university to promote the research performance of each department as well as the whole university.     

May business mentors act as opportunity brokers and enablers among university students?

Networks are recognized as a central component of the entrepreneurial process, in particular with regard to opportunity identification and exploitation. In this study, we specifically analyze the role of mentors who are in business as opportunity brokers and enablers among university students with entrepreneurial intentions. Our investigation on 1022 students from 13 French-language universities based in Canada, France, Belgium and Algeria indicates that mentors in business, contrary to other mentors, support opportunity identification and exploitation among university students. Although student gender, entrepreneurial experience and education have a more pronounced effect, mentoring is the only element that can be controlled for through the creation of formal support programs. These results call on public authorities, and universities in particular, to implement formal mentoring programs to support students who are interested in starting their own business, and who would not otherwise have access to business mentors in their environment.     

Designing business models in circular economy: A systematic literature review and research agenda

The concept of circular economy is increasingly receiving attention in different domains, including strategic management, operations management, and technology management. It requires companies to design their business model (i.e., the value network, the relationships with the supply chain partners, and the value propositions towards customers) around a new concept of sustainable development that reduces consumption of natural resources and preserves the environment. However, extant research falls short in terms of explaining how companies design their business model according to the circular economy principles. Starting from this premise, the present paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the design of business models in the context of circular economy, aiming to offer an overview of the state of research and outline a promising research agenda.     

Agglomeration economies and university program creation in the knowledge economy

Existing academic literature on the relationship between agglomeration economies and university activities is both under-theorized and relatively sparse in terms of empirical examination. This paper addresses each of these voids by contributing and analyzing a market model of pro-revenue education program creation such as graduate-level executive business education (e.g. EMBA) that reveals some intriguing characteristics. For instance, it shows that demand for these pro-revenue programs is inelastic and therefore uniquely determines their availability. More specifically, we show that through agglomeration economies these types of education programs are more likely to emanate from universities located in metropolitan areas and from less academically prestigious universities. Regression analysis of a cross-section of national public universities lends support to important facets of our formal model by suggesting that agglomeration economies continue to increase the probability of offering EMBA programs through a city size of approximately 2.12 million and that the probability that a given business school will offer an EMBA is negatively related to the academic prestige of the institution to which it is affiliated.     

How to innovate business models for a circular bio-economy?

Shifting from a linear to a circular bio-economy requires new business models. The objective was getting insights into the uncharted research field of business model innovation for a circular and sustainable bio-economy within the agrifood sector. Eight European cases valorising agricultural waste and by-products by closing loops or cascading were studied regarding their innovation drivers and elements, via interviews, on-site visits and secondary data. In this domain, the findings highlight that business model innovations are depending on the (i) macro-environmental institutional-legal conditions and market trends, (ii) driven by internal economic, environmental and/or social objectives, but especially strongly linked to (iii) other actors often from different sectors seeking synergies and (iv) value co-creation via combined organisational and technological innovations. Business models for a circular bio-economy thus depend on various action levels and need radical combined organisational and technological innovations for a most efficient usage of agricultural waste and by-products. This also means new business configurations instead of linear innovation strategies currently still being dominant due to economic viability.     

Rowing against the wind: how do times of austerity shape academic entrepreneurship in unfriendly environments?

Academic spin-offs (ASOs) help universities transfer knowledge or technology through business projects developed by academic staff. This investigation aims at analyzing the critical factors for spin-off creation at universities operating in crisis-raven, entrepreneurship-unfriendly environments. Such factors revolve around four types of resources: environmental, institutional, organizational, and personal. Focusing on a Southern European context, as an example of an unfriendly environment affected by economic crisis, an entrepreneurial university (the Technical University of Valencia in Spain, UPV) is our research setting. Through a case study approach, we examine the potential of UPV as a springboard for ASOs. Our results show an adverse local environment, a rather favorable influence of institutional and organizational drivers, and a mixed role of personal factors. Our findings illustrate that UPV consistently supports spin-off creation due to a greater (rather positive) reflexivity from its institutional, organizational and personal resources than the (negative) imprinting of the unfriendly environment. This helps counter-balance the structural unfriendliness for academic entrepreneurship, and trigger a crisis-led risk-taking attitude by academic staff. Hence, UPV should continue with its current strategy of supporting academic entrepreneurship, and might transfer best practices to other universities also affected by unfavorable environmental conditions. Generally speaking, we would advise universities facing adverse circumstances to develop rules and mechanisms for academic entrepreneurship, carefully revise and improve malfunctions, and become involved throughout the whole process of spin-off development. All in all, our study advances understanding of how the different drivers for ASO creation can be revamped by universities located in unfriendly environments, having in mind the key role that universities play in fostering social and economic development through academic entrepreneurship in such environments.     

A graduates ’ satisfaction index for the evaluation of the university overall quality

In the higher educational setting, students provide a relevant contribution to the quality of educational services. In such a context, the measurement of the perceived quality and related satisfaction for the university experience are of primary interest to evaluate the efficiency and efficacy of the learning processes. In this contribution, we aim at assessing the overall quality of the graduates’ university experience in terms of internal and external efficacy by applying the ECSI (European Customer Satisfaction Index) methodology, based on structural equation models and primarily developed in the context of customer satisfaction. For this aim, we propose a modified ECSI model tailored for the higher educational setting, explicitly taking into account the differences among groups of degree program. The study is carried out on data collected by the AlmaLaurea surveys at the University of Florence (Italy) in the period 2014–2017 and concerns a sample of more than 2,000 graduates. We find out eight latent variables that contribute to define the overall quality of university experience. These variables are differently affected by the type of degree program, with the highest levels of external efficacy observed for degree programs belonging to the educational, health, and engineering groups. It also turns out that interventions on the internal efficacy (i.e., quality of hardware and quality of humanware) have a direct positive effect on the university (i.e., loyalty) and an indirect positive effect on the society (i.e., external efficacy).     

高校科技成果转化及技术转移影响因素研究

高校科技成果转化及技术转移是国家技术转移领域的重要组成部分,对区域经济发展及社会服务有着十分重要的影响。本文系统梳理了影响高校科技成果转化及技术转移的四大因素,分别从技术自身、高校自身、企业自身和外部环境等不同角度对高校科技成果转化及技术转移进行分析。     

Higher education and economic growth: A longitudinal study of European regions 2000–2017

This paper investigates the impact of regional higher education systems (HESs) on economic growth, based upon 284 European regions (NUTS 2) over an 18-year period (from 2000 to 2017). The empirical framework specifically models the heterogeneity of the HESs by including indicators on university concentration, on the size of the HES and on HES performance and other important factors. The analysis is based on a novel and integrated dataset, created by collecting and combining indicators from different data sources (Eurostat, OECD, WHED and InCites). The results reveal that an increase in number of universities in a region is conducive to stronger economic growth within that region. The quality of research and a specialisation in STEM subjects are the primary drivers through which universities impact positively on the regions’ economic development.     

Multi-factor of cultural values: a confirmatory factor analytic approach

All organisations is unique and thus practise different cultural values in the context of an organisation. Determination of values that constitute to the organisation is of challenging task. Therefore, this paper expounds the value-based culture that is related to the performance of the organisation based on the literature review and expert’s view. This study aimed at testing the psychometric properties of the questionnaire of value-based culture items of performance measurement based on the value-based total performance excellence model. 400 questionnaires were distributed to the selected Institution of Higher Learning (IHL) i.e, the public university of Malaysia. The data collected was analysed using predictive analytics software and analysis of moment structures software, both version 18. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique i.e., the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach was employed to test the 6-factor hypothesized model of the value-based cultures which consisted values of citizenship, consultation, caring, trust, respect and quality. The result suggested that 2 core values i.e., consultation and trust that dominantly explained the university’s culture in the selected university from the proposed of 6 core values in the hypothesized model. The findings also paved the way forward for empowering value-based cultures especially at the IHL. However, future research should be conducted to reaffirm this model to represent the values embraced by the universities in Malaysia.     

The sustainable start-up paradox: Predicting the business and climate performance of start-ups

Sustainable start-ups introduce new sustainable technologies and business models that facilitate the transition to a carbon neutral economy. To understand how to create viable sustainable start-ups, we study what factors predict their business performance and climate performance (i.e., the ability of the start-up to reduce CO₂ equivalent [CO₂e] emissions) and if these contradict. A critical factor we consider is technology, which is commonly at the root of climate performance, and important for business performance because it influences a start-up's competitive advantage. Using a sample of 197 sustainable start-ups, we find a paradox between business and potential climate performance. Start-ups that exploit hardware technologies have a lower business performance but a higher potential climate performance. Through the use of mediating effects, we show that the sustainable start-up paradox is context specific. Start-ups can partly escape this paradox by focusing on novel and hardware technologies. We discuss implications for theory and practice.     

基于CISR框架下的我国高校信息化建设中IT治理现状分析

本文基于CISR框架分析了我国高校信息化建设中IT治理现状,认为高校信息化建设中存在着IT原则、IT架构、IT基础设施、业务应用需求和IT投资五项基本IT决策。我国高校普遍存在着对这五项IT决策的决策权模糊的问题,这是造成目前我国高校信息化建设中IT投资效率低下的根源之一,为此我国高校急需引入IT治理的理念。     

Passion Isn't Always a Good Thing: Examining Entrepreneurs' Network Centrality and Financial Performance with a Dualistic Model of Passion

We propose a conceptual model that links entrepreneurs' passion, network centrality, and financial performance, and test this model with small business managers in formal business networking groups. Drawing on the dualistic model of passion, we explore the relationships that harmonious and obsessive passion have with financial performance, mediated by network centrality. Results indicate that harmoniously passionate entrepreneurs had higher out‐degree centrality in their networking group (i.e., they were more inclined to seek out members to discuss work issues), which increased the income they received from peer referrals and, ultimately, business income. Obsessively passionate entrepreneurs had lower in‐degree centrality (i.e., they were less likely to be approached by peers), and in turn received less income from referrals and less business income. These findings highlight that entrepreneurial passion does not always result in positive financial outcomes – the type of passion makes a difference. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

The impact of the economic crisis on the (in)efficiency of public Higher Education institutions in Southern Europe: The case of Spanish universities

The evaluation of university efficiency in Europe began timidly when the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was created. However, this issue is currently becoming increasingly important in Southern European countries, where the limitation of public funding following the economic crisis in 2008 has put greater pressure on their public universities to achieve excellence and improve competitiveness. In this context, the goals of this paper are: first, to measure the relative technical (in)efficiency of Spanish public Higher Education Institutions in the period 2002–03 to 2012–13, comparing the situation before and during the last economic crisis; and, second, to analyze the determinants of university (in)efficiency and, especially, the direct impact of the crisis. After applying the two-stage double bootstrap DEA methodology, the results show that Spanish public universities have become more efficient during the crisis than before it. In fact, the regression analysis confirms that the “crisis” variable has had a statistically significant positive impact on university efficiency. We also find that age has favorably influenced how these institutions utilize their resources to produce teaching and research outputs, but technical specialization has had a negative effect. Moreover, the regional location of public universities has been also a crucial determinant of their efficiency level. Our findings are therefore relevant for political and academic decision-makers in order to know if public universities have been adequately managed in the crisis period and to identify factors that could improve their efficiency, and hence to help them to enhance their international competitiveness in the future.