This chapter explores the relation between the concepts of entrepreneurial universities (EU) within the framework of Smart Specialization Strategies (S3). The latter is arising as a new competitive paradigm and universities can be of great importance for its successful implementation because of their contribution both as a partner institution, policy actor and producer of knowledge and social capital that can affect the potential for economic growth and development of regions. The links and contributions of both dimensions are presented and explored. As a final point, the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystem is presented as a consequence and future development of the dynamics resulting S3 and entrepreneurial universities interactions.
This crisis that our society faced, due to the pandemic COVID-19, had implications not only in the social relationship of human beings, but also in terms of the School and families with school children and young people. From the outset, the School had to quickly devise an intervention plan that would prove effective with regard to the learning of its students. On the other hand, families also had to replan their lives so that, at home, they could collaborate with the School in supporting children and young people in dealing with everything that was asked for them exclusively through Technology. Teachers with less training in the field of Educational Technology, had to, in record time, modify their entire methodological intervention plan with their students, using a wide range of technological instruments, always aiming at learning of these, using technologies, and the use of digital platforms appears more quickly and instantly in a more consistent and permanent way, with a view to responding to the consequences that this pandemic has placed on the school community.The questionnaire was distributed using the Google Forms platform between 14 and 31 May 2020. The representative sample of the study subjects is composed of 536 questionnaires answered and validated, which taking into account the universe of teachers in Portugal, represents an actual assumed error of 4.23%.
The first part of this article examines the concept of regional innovation systems against the background of modern theories of innovation and regional policies. It is argued that the role of localized learning is of strategic importance in the promotion of endogenous regional development. With reference to current research on regional policy, the author also argues that sustainable regional strength is built on a continuously upgraded knowledge base, rather than on general factor endowment. By stimulating localized learning, the regional innovation systems have an important role to play and offer possibilities of producing regional competitive advantage. The author then suggests how regional innovation systems can be organized in order to increase innovation at various levels. Finally, some sketches are provided of various innovation strategies operating at the regional level from which lessons of direct policy relevance may be learned and adapted to the Portuguese context.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is three-fold. The first objective is to contextualize and clarify the concepts of regional innovation systems and entrepreneurship, addressing their differences and complementarities and suggesting an analytical filter to enhance their understanding. The second aim is to question and analyse the challenges this renewed approach brings to the domain of territorial policy, namely, the role it may bring to local and regional development strategies, opening up the way for a set of public policy interventions on the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation promotion. Finally, the paper presents and analyses the example of Coimbra, a medium-sized city in Portugal, underlining both the role of academia and the Instituto Pedro Nunes-Incubator have had on these domains. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a case study approach, with an in-depth descriptive and exploratory analysis of the Coimbra entrepreneurial ecosystem. Findings The paper acknowledged the role entrepreneurial stakeholders have on the fertilization of the innovation and entrepreneurial Coimbra ecosystem. The Instituto Pedro Nunes-Incubator, with a new generation of startups, mostly born on its infrastructure as university spin-offs, gradually introduced a more business-oriented perspective on the local innovation system which, alongside the creation of a thicker networking and more profound cooperation culture, with the growing involvement of other local stakeholders such as science parks (Coimbra iParque), has had a decisive role on upgrading urban competitiveness. These new knowledge-based startups also have important spill-over effects that are beneficial to the growth of other firms in the same locality. There is evidence that they also provide an important Schumpeterian stimulus within economies by increasing competition, promoting innovation and augmenting the efficient allocation of resources within economies. Besides the more traditional transactional forms of support (tax incentives, grants, etc.), there is now the recognition that relational forms of support such as network building, developing connections between entrepreneurial actors, institutional alignment of priorities, fostering peer-based interactions have been strategic to improve both the efficiency and the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Research limitations/implications There is, thus, a need for more profound theorization and empirical research that can produce additional comprehension into this domain of the cause-effect relationships between entrepreneurship, innovation and local and regional dynamics. Some authors suggest, in particular, that the existing work on entrepreneurial ecosystems within popular business literature and academic research still has a deficit of a solid theoretical foundation, making the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach somehow both ambiguous and immature concept and, thus, reducing its generalizability and policy applicability. Research that evaluates the relationship between entrepreneurial performance and the level of government participation as part of governance systems will also be of great significance over the near future as it will help researchers and policymakers to realize better where the different stakeholders can enhance entrepreneurship and where their intervention will possibly diminish positive outcomes. Practical implications The main practical implications of this paper are associated with the need that urban and regional policymakers to formulate more business-led strategies to promote territorial innovation and entrepreneurship. The paper also offers conceptual tools that point out the need that innovation stakeholders, namely, universities, incubators and firms, have to assume more protagonism in promoting competitiveness and sustainability. Social implications The entrepreneurial ecosystem approach constitutes both a theoretical and analytical useful tool to define competitive strategies for urban and regional economies. Urban and regional-innovation ecosystem construction is a representative method of realizing territorial development and competition enhancement, through sustainable job and wealth creation. Originality/value This paper analysis summarizes and integrates the increasing and scattered literature of both the regional innovation systems and of the entrepreneurial ecosystems and delivers new insights for the future development of this field, namely, in terms of renewal of policy formulation and implementation. The singularity of the case study is associated with the fact that Coimbra entrepreneurial ecosystem is still largely embryonic, having its roots on a paradigm strategic shift the University adopted towards a more proactive role in terms of city aand regional development.
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