Entrepreneurship & Innovation Research/Scholarship Seminar – Professor James Cunningham

Title: Reconfiguring University Business Models: Creating Social Impact Through Academic Entrepreneurship

Date: 4 December 2024

Time: 12:00 – 13:00

Venue: NUBS.2.13

If you would like to attend, please register using the following link:

Reconfiguring University Business Models: Creating Social Impact Through Academic Entrepreneurship

Speaker:  Professor James Cunningham

Abstract:

Universities are facing increasing pressure to create a social impact through social innovation while remaining focused on economic knowledge production. Academic entrepreneurship delivers an economic impact but also has the potential to drive social innovation through appropriately designed university business models. The challenge for universities is fostering prosocial behaviours among academic entrepreneurs to effectively create social innovation. Based on 45 interviews with university stakeholders across Europe, we examined universities’ drivers and interpretations of social innovation, presenting various approaches to enabling a university-wide social impact. Four categories of strategic behaviours were identified that align with university business models, support academic entrepreneurship, and generate a social impact, with the roles of context and stakeholder influences receiving particular attention.