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

Zhang, Qiantao; MacKenzie, Niall G.; Jones-Evans, Dylan; Huggins, Robert

Abstract

© 2016, The Author(s). 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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 20, 2016
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 18, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 18, 2016
• Journal: Small Business Economics
• Print ISSN: 0921-898X
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-0913
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 657-675
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-016-9759-0
• Keywords: entrepreneurial universities, knowledge exchange, academic entrepreneurship, regional development, competitiveness
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/924764
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11187-016-9759-0
• Contract Date: Jul 18, 2016