Drawing on human capital theory, this study investigates how formal education, village entrepreneurial intensity, and clan culture shape entrepreneurial entry in rural areas, using large-scale longitudinal data from the China Labour Dynamic Survey (2012–2018). The analysis reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between formal education and both necessity-driven and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, indicating that additional education initially increases but eventually decreases the likelihood of entrepreneurial entry. Moreover, village entrepreneurial intensity broadens access to opportunity-driven entrepreneurship by lowering the educational threshold required to recognize and pursue opportunities, while clan culture exerts a stronger influence on necessity-driven entrepreneurship by enabling individuals with limited formal education to start businesses through kinship-based support. The findings underscore that the impacts of education on entrepreneurship are context dependent, offering new insights into the boundary conditions of human capital in rural entrepreneurship. This study explores why people in rural China start businesses and how formal education (schooling) and local community conditions shape these choices. Using national survey data from 2012–2018, we find that education has a mixed effect: having more schooling first increases but later reduces the chances of becoming an entrepreneur. Villages with many existing entrepreneurs make it easier for residents to spot and pursue business opportunities, even if they have less formal education. Strong clan networks mainly support people who start businesses out of necessity by offering kinship-based help and resources. Overall, the study shows that the influence of education on entrepreneurship depends on local social settings. These insights can help policymakers and community leaders design better programmes to support rural entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has been identified as a central construct to understand how firms compete and perform effectively in increasingly competitive environments. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, this study examines how chief executive officers' (CEOs') regulatory focus, a motivational attribute that entails a promotion focus for growth and a prevention focus for safety, affects the EO of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Results from 110 UK SMEs show promotion focus positively, and prevention focus negatively affect EO when the two foci are examined independently. Our findings also demonstrate that EO varies significantly among firms led by CEOs with different combinations of the two foci. Specifically, firms engaged in significantly higher levels of EO when they are led by CEOs with a high rather than a low promotion focus, where prevention focus is at a high level. This study extends the literature by uncovering regulatory focus as a motivational microfoundation of EO.

Environmental management is becoming a popular practice in many organisations. However, the transition from old to new practices does not come without any challenges. Numerous studies have argued that the process of adopting a new practice such as environmental management will depend on firms’ absorptive capacity, i.e. the ability of firms to identify, acquire and transform external information and knowledge. However, absorptive capacity alone does not guarantee success. To deliver the intended outcomes, absorptive capacity works in conjunction with other internal and external factors. Based on a configuration perspective, this study used data from 107 manufacturing firms to identify an asymmetric role played by absorptive capacity with factors, such as firm size, decentralisation, customer engagement and global environmental awareness in supporting the practice of environmental management. This study contributes to the development of knowledge in environmental management literature and provides several practical recommendations.

This paper examines a programme initiated and managed by an entrepreneurial university in the United Kingdom (UK), aiming to foster the circular water economy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our focus is on transitioning from conventional models of the entrepreneurial university to innovative forms of knowledge exchange that prioritise social innovation and sustainable development, as per the “engaged university”. Through an in-depth qualitative study, we find that three interrelated levels of engagement—engaging individuals, engaging organisations and engaging communities—are essential for universities delivering the third mission of societal impact. Employing the established framework developed by Hughes et al. (in: Knowledge exchange between the arts and humanities and the private, public and third sectors, Arts Humanities Research Council, Cambridge, 2011) to examine university activities, we expose the social innovation underpinning people-based, problem-solving and community-based activities. In the context of the third mission, social innovation involves bringing individuals, organisations and communities together through supporting entrepreneurship, collaboration and mutual learning capacities both within and beyond the university setting. The mechanisms driving university engagement are thus a process of multilevel social innovation, relying on support from individual researchers, project leaders, partner institutions and local end-user communities. Adopting a multilevel perspective allows us to identify the distinct mechanisms of engaged universities, which transcend those of other university models in the realm of social innovation. We argue that the engaged university model extends understanding of how supports for social innovation can connect and create networks to tackle global challenges.

Prior studies have highlighted the importance of team heterogeneity and team cohesion in supporting academic spin-offs during their commercialization activities. However, there has been little insight into the role of strategic orientation, namely speed to market and product performance, in moderating the relationship between team characteristics and market performance in the new product development process. From the analysis of 105 academic spin-offs, this article suggests that team heterogeneity is more likely to support a strategic orientation focusing on product performance, whereas team cohesion supports both speed to market and product performance. This article provides both theoretical and practical recommendations for managing academic spin-offs for the development of new products, especially highlighting the importance of building a heterogeneous team while at the same time maintaining cohesion among team members.

During the new product development (NPD) process, exploitation and exploration are important, especially for small manufacturing firms (SMFs). However, limited resources and a lack of internal knowledge capacity have forced SMFs to work with knowledge-intensive professional service firms (KIPSFs). This article investigates the impact of SMFs' networks with KIPSFs on the performance of NPD. Using data from 164 SMFs in the northwest of England, this article reveals a linear relationship between firm's product innovativeness and its network with KIPSFs for exploitation, and a curvilinear relationship between firm's speed to market and its network with KIPSFs for exploration. A curvilinear relationship was also found between networks with KIPSFs for ambidexterity and firm's product innovativeness and speed to market. These results lead to several practical implications for networking strategy as each network supports different innovation activities and produces different outcomes.

This study aims to bridge the gap in the literature by empirically analyzing how department context influences academic scientists' intention to engage in knowledge commercialization. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a framework and a survey of 272 scientists from Chinese universities, this study shows that although entrepreneurial intention is positively influenced by the department's scientific reputation and the presence of role models, no such effect is found for department entrepreneurial support. In the absence of department context, our findings also suggest that scientists' motivational factors, such as commercialization attitude and perceived behavioral control, still significantly influence their intention to engage in commercialization activities.

Around the world today, universities are expected to play a unique role as creators of regional growth and innovation. While there appears to be a consensus that the role of universities has been expanded, critiques show that the contribution of universities to their regions is still not well defined. There have been some developments in the literature on the concept of modern universities such as the triple helix, entrepreneurial university and engaged university. However, those concepts focus on enforcing universities’ roles in a single domain such as entrepreneurship, innovation, or civic engagement. Little is known about how universities can facilitate regional growth that goes beyond knowledge transfer activities such as spin-off creation, licensing, and patenting. This paper contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of universities’ role in regional growth through the theoretical lens of ambidexterity. Using ambidexterity, universities with a regional focus were distinguished from those engaged in research commercialization and traditional third-mission roles. Through two case studies, this study found that teaching, research, and engagement should not be separated, since they can serve both economic and social missions. As a result, a new model of multidextrous universities is proposed where universities meet both economic and social missions through teaching, research, and engagement. Contrary to previous contributions which presented universities as ambidextrous organizations where tension appears only between research commercialization and research publication or between teaching and research, this study suggests that universities need to overcome tensions and incorporate a sense of place in all activities to successfully contribute to regional growth.

Building on the entrepreneurial orientation (EO)-as-experimentation perspective, we examine how configurations of the EO dimensions (innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness) might lead to high and low firm performance, and how the configurations differ under different firm contexts. We adopted a configurational approach and applied fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to a sample of 110 UK small and medium-sized enterprises. Our findings show that three (four) configurations can result in high (low)-firm performance, demonstrating that the EO dimensions can contribute to as well as hinder firm performance. Moreover, the configurations leading to the same outcome are distinct between high-tech and low-tech firms, indicating that the impacts of the EO dimensions on firm performance depend on the firm context. Our findings offer useful insights for managers on how to configure the portfolio of firms' entrepreneurial activities to achieve superior performance.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate funders' decisions in supporting reward-based crowdfunding (RBCF) in the creative industries by providing insights into the role of trust in the decision-making process of funders. In doing so, the authors examine how trust is developed through online interaction. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from interviews and participation at short-term immersive events and gatherings. In addition, data were gathered from online discussions and social media platforms related to RBCF campaign. Qualitative analysis was performed to offer a deeper understanding of funder decision-making processes. Findings New insights were revealed into funder decision-making processes. Using foraging practices, funders participating in RBCF campaigns build trust before framing their final funding judgments. The paper’s findings highlight the interplay of organizational competency with previously uncharted relational dimensions associated with funder decision-making processes. The authors also revealed how nascent and experienced funders differ in their evaluation of risk. Originality/value This study offers an understanding of funder decision-making processes in creative RBCF campaigns. Their support of RBCF campaigns in the creative industries can present some potential risks. Further investigation is still required to reveal the funder's decision-making process. By looking at the roles of trust, the authors provide a conceptualization of competence and the relational dimension of trust, and how trust is developed as a means for mitigating risk.

This paper explores the idea of the entrepreneurial university and how it differs in diverse regional and institutional settings. From the analysis of university engagement in a regional economic development programme in fifteen city-regions in England (UK), this study identifies three roles that entrepreneurial universities play in regional economic development as growth supporter, steerer, and driver. The roles vary depending on regional characteristics, the university's motivation and its capability to engage in third mission activities and the constellation of active stakeholders working towards regional development. In addition to advancing the concept of entrepreneurial universities, this paper explores the contemporary policy trend towards placing a stronger emphasis on universities as drivers of regional economic development.