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The entrepreneurial ecosystem, an emerging and developing theoretical stream, has the potential to expand our understanding of entrepreneurship. In previous research, this concept has been studied from the university perspective, but it has not yet been introduced in the field of entrepreneurial support. Additionally, the growing number of university business incubators has led to increasing research interest in the entrepreneurial support field. This research project seeks to develop a more robust understanding of sustainable universitybased entrepreneurial ecosystems through an in-depth analysis of an essential entrepreneurial support element: the university business incubator. Our exploratory research study draws on 48 face-to-face interviews with key members of university-based entrepreneurial ecosystems to explore the operation of three cases through the lens of social capital theory. Our analysis suggests that all three social capital dimensions are relevant to the effective functioning of the university-based entrepreneurial ecosystem and contribute to its sustainability: applying the structural dimension of social capital enhances access to resources; addressing the cognitive dimension strengthens relationships among ecosystem members; and investing in the relational dimension enhances complementarity and trust while the ecosystem evolves. Thus, the interaction of these dimensions may further contribute to the sustainability of the university-based entrepreneurial ecosystem. Enhancing the development and application of the three social capital dimensions as an aspect of proactive management of the entrepreneurship ecosystem has the potential to improve outcomes for ecosystem members.

Science Parks (SPs) have become a widely spread mechanism of global innovation. An assessment of SPs generally uses performance indicators, but perceptual measures are also recommended because of their capacity to identify specific objectives more distinctly among different firms. This study explores the relationship between the tenant’s profile and the perceived benefits of being located in a Science Park. The presentation of new evidence on the perceived value of the SP facilities and services would contribute to increasing the effectiveness and overall performance of the SPs and that of their wide range of tenants. An empirical study is conducted on a sample of 29 firms located in the University of Valencia Science Park (PCUV). A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is applied to our survey in order to identify various combinations of causal conditions, namely linking the attributes that define the firm’s profile (performance, age and technology level) to different possible perceived benefits of being in a science park. Our results reveal that to be a firm with a relatively low economic performance is a necessary condition for being located in a science park in search of a more fluid access to funding. In addition, we find several combinations of sufficient conditions for each one of the three factors affecting location decisions: proximity to a university, availability of funds, and agglomeration effects.

While existing studies demonstrated how academia–industry partnerships have contributed to R&D knowledge accumulation and technology transfer, the present study explores the multiple facets of academia–industry R&D partnerships that foster effective collaboration between the relevant stakeholders. Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Center (AMTDC), a Center of Excellence (CoE) established in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Research Park, is chosen for this study. The study adopted a mixed methods approach by employing Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) and Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). IQA identified the factors influencing successful partnerships at the Center. The IQA findings suggest that 'Team Cohesion' is the primary driver and 'Center Reputation' is the primary outcome of successful R&D partnerships. The study compared academic and industry partners' perceived importance and performance of the enabling factors by employing the IPA. The IPA findings highlighted differences in partners' actions and expectations. The study findings contribute to the existing literature on academia–industry collaborations and partnerships. The study has implications for strengthening ties between academic and industry partners for the team's consideration.

Using survey data from companies located in the Wuxi (Taihu) international science park in China, we aim to analyze to what extent science park residents experience barriers to innovation and to what extent opening up the innovation process allows them to overcome constraints and increase innovation performance. Findings indicate that surveyed firms that mostly undertake incremental innovation perceive many constraints and that the depth of external knowledge search—that is, the intensity of the relationship with external sources of knowledge—significantly influences innovation performance, mediating the relationships between innovation barriers and innovation performance. Our results allow us to explain how open innovation practices can be used to mitigate existing barriers, and therefore permeate the knowledge filter, and to theorize on the importance of institutional factors for open innovation theory in emerging economies.Plain English summary It is quality not quantity that matters! The intensity of relationships with external knowledge sources helps to mitigate innovation constraints, facilitate the flow of knowledge, and enhance innovation performance in emerging market firms. We surveyed high-tech SMEs located in the Wuxi (Taihu) international science park in China to find out to what extent external firm barriers to innovation have an impact on the innovation performance of science park residents, and how open innovation strategies affect this relationship. There are three key implications: First, for research, institutional factors need to be considered when studying open innovation, particularly in an emerging country context. Results emphasize the importance of deeper external knowledge sources as one mechanism to mitigate institutional barriers. Second, for management, we show human resource constraints are an important barrier for SMEs and managers should stimulate learning through reward systems and training that increase absorptive and innovative capacity ability. Third, for policy, we show that local officials responsible for the management of science parks in China should put more effort into providing financial support by creating specialized venture capital and a better knowledge of risk analysis from the financial system.

This article introduces various aspects of technology business incubators (TBIs), emphasizing their increasing role in the spatial context where they are used as platforms and drivers of regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. It outlines the key themes of the emerging role of TBIs in sustainable regional development: TBI biodiversity of ecosystems; accelerating startups in the entrepreneurial university; TBI mechanisms challenged by green technology to sustain regional development; and TBIs’ connecting role between entrepreneurship education, experiential knowledge, and regional development. It proposes an agenda for future research on the role of TBIs as bridging mechanisms and drivers of entrepreneurship and regional development.

Over the past decades, public policy has promoted the establishment of science parks to support the development and growth of technology-based firms and, as such, spur economic prosperity. However, despite the worldwide proliferation of science parks and scholarly interest, their contribution is yet to be fully understood. This paper presents the current state of knowledge on science park contribution using the Input–Mediator–Outcome framework and is based upon an analysis of 175 journal articles published between 1988 and 2018. Furthermore, the paper uncovers critical methodological and theoretical deficiencies in the literature, and identifies promising avenues for future research, which will provide important insights to both academics and practitioners.

PurposeAlthough business incubators are a widely recognized form of entrepreneurial support, this paper aims to challenge the assumption that incubation is necessarily beneficial for early-stage entrepreneurs, and considers cases where, due to variability in the motives and behaviours of entrepreneurs, incubation may be unwarranted or even undesireable.Design/methodology/approachThis study presents a theoretically derived typology of incubated entrepreneurs, based on their entrepreneurial competence and capacity for learning, which asserts that incubation may be unwarranted or even undesireable for three of the four proposed entrepreneur types. Qualitative data from interviews with entrepreneurs and managing directors from 10 business incubators is used to illustrate the existence of these types.FindingsThe data provides evidence of entrepreneurial types whose incubation may be counterproductive to the goals and objectives of their host incubators.Practical implicationsImplications for incubator management (intake screening and ongoing monitoring of portfolio) are developed and aimed at improving the outcomes of business incubation for stakeholders.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the incubation typology literature by challenging a widely held assumption that entrepreneurs have the potential to benefit from incubation and by reconceptualizing incubators as “crucibles” that perform a critical function in distinguishing high-potential entrepreneurs.

Business incubators hatch start-ups, helping them to survive their early stage and to create a solid foundation for sustainable growth by providing services and access to knowledge. The great practical relevance led to a strong interest of researchers and a high output of scholarly publications, which made the field complex and scattered. To organize the research on incubators and provide a systematic overview of the field, we conducted bibliometric performance analyses and science mappings. The performance analyses depict the temporal development of the number of incubator publications and their citations, the most cited and most productive journals, countries, and authors, and the 20 most cited articles. The author keyword co-occurrence analysis distinguishes six, and the bibliographic coupling seven research themes. Based on a content analysis of the science mappings, we propose a research framework for future research on business incubators.

Recent work on Region Innovation Systems (RIS) has emphasised the importance of universities. Until recently, however, related insights into the dynamics of this relationship in respect of the specific role of the science park have been limited. This paper presents a systematic review identifying the key roles of each actor in relation to innovation. We link the dynamic roles performed by the university between science parks and the RIS. Our results enable us to identify how the key activities performed by the university change during its interrelations within the RIS and with the science park. Our analysis of the literature distinguishes between three sets of relationships through which the university plays differing roles: RIS-university, RIS-university-science park, and university-science park. Respectively, the University’s relationships between these different RIS actors focuses on: resource sharing, brokerage, and commercialisation-exploitation. Secondly, we find that within each of these relationship types the university can perform three types of roles: on knowledge co-creation, acting as conduit, and inter-organisational relationship building. Distinguishing between these differing relationships and roles enables us to identify a total of nine dynamic roles performed by the University, which include: provision of information, channels of communication, infrastructure, regional networking, building research collaboration, acting as knowledge intermediaries, economic development, technological change and commercialisation processes, and start up creation and commercialisation. The review identifies several gaps in the literature in need of further research, and suggests that university relationships with RIS, interlinked with those between the university and science park itself, are important factors affecting science park innovation performance.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify how firms' sustainability performance is affected by external knowledge sources and absorptive capacity, accounting for the influence of being located in a science and technology park (STP). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on data from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel, the authors estimate the determinants of sustainability performance using fixed effects multiple linear regression models with robust standard errors. The analysis covers the period 2009–2016, with a total panel of 8,874 companies and a total sample of 47,870 observations. Findings This study highlights the heterogeneity in on-park firms’ sustainability performance, which can be explained by the different capacities of these firms when it comes to embedding themselves in STP networks and processes and effectively absorbing the knowledge from the many knowledge sources that may be on offer in the park. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by examining the influence of external sources of knowledge and absorptive capacity, and the relationship between them, on sustainability performance. This study approaches sustainability performance as an aggregate measure of firms’ competitiveness and potential for long-term survival from the triple bottom line perspective. In addition, this study examines the effect that location in an STP can have on business sustainability performance and, more specifically, the mediating effect that knowledge sources and absorptive capacity can exert on this relationship.