Beyond ambidexterity: universities and their changing roles in driving regional development in challenging times

Abstract

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.

Roles in Research Teams: The Perspective of University Commercialisation

“…Therefore, it seems that if universities want to commercialise the results of their research, i.e., be entrepreneurial (Aldawod, 2022;Arroyabe et al, 2022), they must create appropriate conditions for the creativity of their employees (Schaeffer et al, 2024;Thomas et al, 2023). The more such people there are in research teams, the greater the probability of commercialising their results.…”

A system dynamics approach for the development of a Regional Innovation System

“…In other words, regional knowledge networks as well as ways of interaction between HEIs and the business community are becoming more and more prevalent. Knowledge transfer and commercialization of research should benefit businesses and communities in the region (Thomas et al, 2023). Displayed in Fig.…”

University without Walls: Experience of Berdyansk State Pedagogical University during the war

“…One of the critical missions of the university is the "third mission" (Thomas et al, 2023;Westermann et al, 2022). The cooperation between the University and regional and local authorities, public organizations, and social institutions aims to unite the community that found itself under the temporary occupation of russian troops.…”