The challenges encountered by established firms transforming their linear business models into circular business models (CBMs) have received extensive research attention. Such firms have experience and market foothold but tend to adopt an incremental approach to CBMs due to risks of business model cannibalization. However, there is relatively limited research on the challenges experienced by new ventures developing CBMs from scratch – circular new ventures. New ventures are often agile, experimental and deploy disruptive CBMs even though they lack resources. The lack of knowledge specific to this topic is constraining for entities such as incubators and accelerators that seek to facilitate the emergence and scale-up of circular new ventures. Furthermore, researchers cannot presume that the challenges experienced by established firms are the same for new ventures when developing CBMs. Thus, the aim of this article is to explore the challenges that new ventures experience while developing circular business models from scratch, synthesize the sources of these challenges and provide practitioner implications to overcome them. In doing so, we studied 70 circular new ventures across Europe. Our article makes four original contributions to the literature. First, our study is seminal in using a large cross-country dataset to qualitatively analyse the empirical challenges of new ventures developing circular business models. Second, we identify which challenges are generic for CBMs, which challenges are specific for certain CBM types and for circular new ventures in particular. Third, we show that the challenges of circular new ventures are determined by their: (i) type of circular business model, (ii) industrial sector, (iii) institutional context, and (iv) new ventures liabilities. Altogether, we highlight that while circular new ventures and new ventures experience several similar challenges, circular new ventures particularly struggle to scale-up due to their liabilities of newness and smallness which limits their resources and legitimacy to enter strategic partnerships crucial for new venture survival.

This article explores the role of start-ups within entrepreneurial ecosystems in driving the transition towards a circular economy. It emphasises the importance of understanding and supporting circular start-ups for broader sustainability impacts. Unlike established firms, start-ups can readily adopt ambitious circular business models (CBMs) without the risk of business model cannibalisation and with the agility to adapt to market trends. CBMs enhance value creation, delivery and capture resource flows in an optimised non-linear fashion. Scaling up CBMs is crucial for overall economic, social and environmental benefits. Hence, leveraging the key entrepreneurial ecosystems actors, such as universities, business incubators and related venture development intermediaries, is vital for start-up support. In this special issue, we have invited researchers to submit contributions that delve into the dynamics among start-ups, entrepreneurial ecosystems and the circular economy, aiming to enrich our understanding of the early stage start-up development process with the aim of promoting the circular economy at a firm, regional or national level.

The circular economy aims for an effective and efficient resource use. Thus, application of the concept can benefit the sustainability performance of companies. Specifically, business modelling is a key enabler for the transition to a circular economy. However, the related research is dominated by a focus on incumbent companies and their transition from linear to circular business models. This focus risks missing out on actors such as start-ups who can experiment with and develop potentially more radical circular business models. Thus, using interviews with 37 start-ups developing circular business models, we analyzed their characteristics and challenges. Our findings reveal that, such firms encounter general challenges related to circular business modelling and new venture development. Furthermore, such start-ups are often dependent on an ecosystem of actors to create, deliver and capture value based on circular principles. Thus, they encounter challenges to scale up their business based on their liabilities of smallness and dependency. Altogether, these challenges of “circular start-ups” call for a holistic approach to understanding their development process.

This study is an in-depth exploration of the growth and development processes of circular new ventures. A unique data set followed 70 such ventures longitudinally between 2021 and 2023. One observation is that new ventures tend to take an experimental approach when developing their circular business models to address the real needs of potential customers and capture value based on circularity. Another is that, from their inception, these ventures have an active interest in becoming part of a business ecosystem. Challenges of circular new ventures related to their liabilities of newness include their limited resources, lack of networks and legitimacy which makes it difficult for such ventures to secure strategic partnerships. Thus, contrary to expectations of rapid scale-up, circular new ventures often must partner with and grow slowly with other small and new ventures. 

Business incubators constitute a unique context where entrepreneurs and new firms can develop and be supported through incubator activities and processes, with potential for enhancing sustainability both in economic, environmental and social terms (Fonseca and Chiappetta Jabbour 2012). Incubators may focus on sustainability in several different ways, e.g., through a narrower focus such as supporting the development of sustainable business models (Bocken et al. 2014) or a broader ‘greening’ mission such as improvement of environmental performance of firms regardless of their focus and industry (Fuchs and Mazmanian 1998).

In a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem business incubators might play a vital role (Mian 1997; Bank et al. 2017), however, only a limited number of studies have explored this aspect of incubators up to this point, e.g., Potts (2010) and Fonseca and Chiappetta Jabbour (2012). Since incubators harbour firms in early development stages, they have a considerable potential for influencing their tenants and enhancing their sustainability, and this potential might currently be underutilised (Fichter et al. 2016; Bank and Kanda 2016). The following chapter aims to provide an overview of how incubators deal with sustainability-related aspects in their mission of supporting new venture tenants. This is done through a survey study of 96 incubators in three European countries that were among top-five countries in European Union’s Eco-Innovation Scoreboard for 2016: Finland, Germany, and Sweden (Giljum et al. 2017).

A particular interest is devoted to the issues of to what extent and how do incubators integrate sustainability aspects when recruiting tenants and supporting development processes of emerging businesses. This study takes an explorative approach where our survey has been sent out to all incubators in the three selected countries regardless of their focus. This gives us the opportunity to study how sustainability of new ventures can be enhanced within entrepreneurial ecosystems through the function of incubators.

The literature on intermediaries faces challenges regarding how to conceptualise and empirically demonstrate the system-level impact of intermediaries. Thus, researchers and policy analysts may experience difficulties in grasping the potential contributions of intermediaries beyond individual projects and firms to aggregate levels of an innovation system. This article combines innovation intermediary and technological innovation systems literature to develop fundamentals of an approach for analysing how organisations acting as intermediaries support firms in eco-innovation and potentially contribute to technological innovation system functions. The operationalisation of the analytical approach is illustrated using case studies on a total of eight support organisations acting as intermediaries in the region of Scania, Sweden and North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. For researchers and policy analysts, the analytical approach presented in this article offers the opportunity for a step-by-step, comprehensive and transparent analysis of different types of intermediaries, their roles, and potential contributions to innovation system functions.

This study investigated how cluster initiatives’ members contribute to cluster initiatives concerning tasks as well as what dependency patterns exist between maturation level and enrolment of members in these organisations. The content of the work is considered as crucial for organisational functioning and development. The findings are based on survey responses from 136 (53% response rate) cluster initiatives from eight European countries. The results show that, first, all members contribute to initiatives’ development by performing strategic, operational tasks, and provision of resources. Each member tends to focus more on one task than the others that are delegated. Second, two factors influence enrolment of new members in cluster initiatives: age and presence of other influential members. The more mature cluster initiatives become the more networks and established organisational attributes it will have. This reflects longevity of the initiative and good-quality, intermediary assistance, which are attractive for potential members.

Digitalization and increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) are major change processes taking place in engineering education today. Self-study and examination are areas with high potential for beneficial use of digital ICT tools. Some advantages with such tools are that students' can continuously assess their own learning in relation to the course objectives while they also can provide an opportunity to meet the teachers' needs to control how the students absorb the course material. Moreover, automatic provision of quick or instant feedback through digital tools can stimulate students’ commitment and active learning and allow students greater flexibility in their learning process, with tests that can be conducted online regardless of time and space and can be repeated as needed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different types of ICT-based self-study and examination practices can be implemented in courses on topics such as project management, product development, and entrepreneurship, and build a knowledge base necessary for future systematic implementation of digital examinations. Our study is based on an educational development project at Linköping University, where we tested and evaluated different models and approaches for digital knowledge testing in a number of selected courses.We discuss both positive and potentially problematic aspects of the use of digital tools and conclude that successful implementation is dependent on well-planned integration of such tools into the overall course where different types of activities enhance each other. Thus, this study connects the areas of digital self- study and examination and provides examples of first steps on the way towards implementation of ICT-based examination practices.

Intermediaries play a vital role in many regional and national innovation systems when it comes to e.g. connecting different actors as well as guiding and supporting inventors, idea owners and entrepreneurs. Since innovation can arise in a wide variety of contexts and industries it is of great importance to take a broad approach when support activities are created and implemented. In this study we focus on how different types of regional intermediaries approach and work together with new, or partially new, target groups that potentially face higher barriers to developing their ideas than those traditionally viewed as being entrepreneurial or innovative. Our results address ways of attracting broader target groups to innovation support activities; as well as of designing guidance and support suitable for these target groups. This study relates to the overall theme of societal outreach within the innovation challenge, in particular through dealing with the issues of how innovation support can contribute to more inclusive innovation.

Many studies have shown that they have ceased to be mere facilitators of physical spaces to become important providers of services and resources to their tenants. Universities situated in or next to them play a key role in getting engaged in the development and the attraction of talent to Science Parks, to their tenant firms as well as to the region. Considering that skilled professionals are one of the resources that companies seek the most, Science Parks have dedicated numerous activities and means to become even more attractive to talented individuals, who can especially be found in entrepreneurial universities. In this study, we review the literature regarding the interactions existing between Science Parks or their tenants and their local universities. Talent attraction and entrepreneurship issues are addressed as the building blocks of these interactions. We strive to identify types of interactions that could differ in function of the maturity levels of the firms since their aims are not the same: at an early stage, firms tend to focus more on growth, whereas at a later stage, they tend to focus more on their development. We then point out policy implications, concerning both entrepreneurial or engaged universities and Science Parks.

Eco-innovation is an approach to environmental sustainability. However, the process of eco-innovation can be challenging especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Thus, SMEs might seek external support to tackle some of their challenges in eco-innovation. In this article, we focus on one type of organization providing and also assisting SMEs to access support, intermediaries, i.e. an organization or body that acts as an agent or broker in the innovation process. Intermediaries support firms in the innovation process through various generic and customised activities. To identify such activities and describe the roles intermediaries take in eco-innovation, we conducted interviews and documentation analysis on selected intermediaries in two regions – Scania, Sweden and North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. The identified roles among our cases include: (i) forecasting and road mapping, (ii) information gathering and dissemination, (iii) fostering networking and partnerships, (iv) prototyping and piloting, (v) technical consulting, (vi) resource mobilisation, (vii) commercialisation, and (viii) branding and legitimation. In relation to the specific characteristics of eco-innovations, the intermediary roles such as prototyping and piloting, information gathering and dissemination, and branding were directly targeted at validating the environmental benefits of eco-innovations to tackle their “double externality” challenge. However, we found little intermediation activities from our cases directed explicitly at policy change for eco-innovation. For policy makers, our results suggest a complementary use of different types of intermediaries to support eco-innovation.

This paper explores the role of business incubators in providing support for sustainable entrepreneurship and in promoting sustainable business models among entrepreneurs and their ventures. Through a survey of 96 European incubators we have focused on the present situation concerning incubators’ profiling and accommodation of firms with sustainable orientation, how incubators apply sustainability aspects when recruiting tenants as well as how this could benefit development of sustainable business models. It is shown that many incubators perceive themselves to be profiled as environmental or sustainable, but there are notable differences between countries. Regional development is the most important target for incubators. Traditional selection criteria such as entrepreneur’s capabilities and business idea’s commercial potential is seen as most important while incubators do generally not prioritise criteria relating to sustainability. It is suggested that incubators should strive to adapt their recruitment strategies to the local and regional conditions, that a structured and time-limited pre-incubation program could be offered to potential tenants, and that incubators integrate competence on sustainable business development into their daily operations.

Peer feedback is increasingly being used as an important part of higher education, as it has a potential to contribute to development of professional skills such as giving and receiving feedback while having the benefit of not overstretching the teacher resources. In this paper we share our experiences of working with peer feedback in a course on organisation and leadership with approximately 170 students given during the first year of a CDIO-based engineering program. We present and discuss the course design and how peer feedback was organized as well as the experiences of both teachers and students of this course. We observe that working with peer feedback has helped our students in achieving several important outcomes, for example increased learning within the subject, documented development of own writing and assessment skills, and increased awareness of different perspectives on the same topic. However, we also identify problematic aspects of working with peer feedback, such as a large variation in the quality of provided feedback, perceived difficulties when students are asked to provide non-anonymous feedback to their peers, and students’ doubts whether peers can provide as “correct” feedback as the teacher would have been able to give. We discuss the benefits and downsides of peer feedback within the framework of CDIO-based engineering education and conclude by recommending that feedback-related skills should be trained and developed throughout educational programs in a gradual and integrated way.

Throughout the history of Science Parks, many studies have shown that Science Parks have ceased to be mere facilitators of physical spaces, to become important providers of services and resources to their tenants. Considering that skilled professionals are one of the most sought after resources by technology and knowledge intensive firms, Science Parks have dedicated numerous activities and means in order to become even more attractive to talents. In this context, universities situated in or next to Science Parks play a key role in developing and attracting talents to Science Parks and to its firms as well as to the region, functioning as a regional node of a large national and international network of universities. Science Parks and universities are vital parts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of a region and have many complementarities. In this study, we review the literature regarding the relationship existing between Science Parks and universities and the ways in which they can collaborate. Talent, recruitment, and entrepreneurship issues are addressed as the building blocks of these interactions. Other stakeholders, inside and outside a Science Park, are also analysed in order to widen the perspective to the ecosystem of actors involved, allowing a better understanding of the role, the interests, the means and the implications of each one. The purpose of this study is to understand and qualify the university's role in attracting and developing talent that firms in Science Parks can recruit later on. We identify the types of interactions occurring between Science Parks and their nearby universities. We strive to find what kinds of skills are considered relevant by employers, and to describe the initiatives developed by universities and Science Parks – separately and together – aiming at drawing, developing and retaining talents. We also seek to identify who are the actors involved; private or public organisations, or people embodying specific functions in these organisations. In the end, we recognize and point out policy implications, concerning both universities and Science Parks.

The CDIO framework encourages us to work with prototyping during the conceive and design phases integrated into engineering education. At Linköping university, we apply prototyping and working with simple mockups in several entrepreneurship and innovation courses in order to stimulate creative thinking and experimentation. We have seen that through working with a joint prototype, the students increase their level of engagement and self-confidence while learning to know each other, both as individuals, and according to their skills and competence. Prototyping events are appreciated as learning activities, not least as they signal a culture of playfulness and unpretentiousness within a course. We have also seen that it is important to inspire the participating students to reflect on the event in order to complete the learning process. In the paper we analyse and discuss our experience regarding how and at what time in a course simple prototypes can be used, how workshops can be developed, and what we have learned. 

The CDIO framework encourages us to work with prototyping during the conceive and design phases integrated into engineering education. At Linköping university, we apply prototyping and working with simple mockups in several entrepreneurship and innovation courses in order to stimulate creative thinking and experimentation. We have seen that through working with a joint prototype, the students increase their level of engagement and self-confidence while learning to know each other, both as individuals, and according to their skills and competence. Prototyping events are appreciated as learning activities, not least as they signal a culture of playfulness and unpretentiousness within a course. We have also seen that it is important to inspire the participating students to reflect on the event in order to complete the learning process. In the paper we analyse and discuss our experience regarding how and at what time in a course simple prototypes can be used, how workshops can be developed, and what we have learned.

The CDIO-Framework is developed in order to enable engineering students to engineer (Crawley et al 2014) and is relatively straightforward when applied on courses and projects that have a high degree of practical, hands-on engineering elements, such as e.g. developing software or a physical product/prototype. However, in many engineering programs a large part of the courses concern managerial aspects such as project management, leadership, marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship, especially in later years of a program. We are well aware of the fact that the CDIO-framework is developed to work on program-level, however, applied on management courses, commonly only the Conceive and Design can be obtained. Furthermore, these courses are not always structured in such a way that they immediately builds on each other. This dilemma has caused us to adapt CDIO to circumstances of the courses that we give and to reflect upon how more of the CDIO spirit can be transferred to our own modules and activities on course level. The aim of this paper is therefore to develop ways for application on a micro-level where the CDIO spirit can be implemented in management courses at engineering programs. In the paper we give three different practical cases where the CDIO-framework have been applied. The cases show that CDIO works both on micro-level, e.g. in two hour exercises and within the frame of individual courses. For management courses, and especially courses in entrepreneurship and marketing, the framework need to apply a more extrovert focus, i.e. on verification of customer needs and benefits, rather than on technological solutions. 

Universities are currently in the process of change and adaptation to shifting expectations that for example include closer engagement with businesses and increased facilitation of entrepreneurship among faculty and graduates. By supporting academic entrepreneurship, universities can address these expectations whilst also becoming more entrepreneurial institutions. However, more knowledge is needed on how this support provided by different levels in the university organisation is perceived by academics. This is particularly relevant in the case of PhD students because many of them will go on to become the next generation of senior faculty and because PhD education constitutes a considerable part of most universities’ activities with PhD students performing a large share of university research. Our study is based on survey responses of 464 PhD students from all faculties at one of the biggest universities in Sweden. The results show that the perceived support of commercialisation of research results varies at different hierarchical levels within the university. The score for perceived support from the highest level (central administration) did not differ much between the faculties, while significant differences were found at lower levels. We argue that variations between faculties and departments with regard to norms and cultures should be considered when stimulating entrepreneurial engagement, for example by using multiple channels of communication, as well as tailor-made strategies and activities.

This article draws from two bodies of literature, innovation intermediaries and technological innovation systems, to develop an approach for analysing the functions of intermediaries in eco-innovation. The link between the functions of innovation intermediaries and the functions of technological innovation systems has seldom been explicitly established in the scientific discourse and thus this article contributes to theoretical development in both literatures. To the technological innovation systems literature, this article addresses the lack of attention to the functions of innovation intermediaries who are a critical part in the formation of networks and also contribute to a number of innovation system functions. To the innovation intermediary literature, the functional approach advocates for a synthesis and consensus building in the literature regarding intermediary functions in view of the several redundancies and ambiguities on the subject matter. Empirical operationalization of the analytical approach including methodological choices from case studies in Region Scania, Sweden and North Rhine Westphalia, Germany are also discussed. The results of our analysis show that the functions of the innovation intermediaries are particularly relevant for the overall goals of an innovation system as compared to the configuration of intermediary actors. Particular challenges with a functional approach in this context include the difficulties of establishing a causal relation between the support functions of intermediaries and eco-innovation outcomes in firms.

Cluster initiatives can be seen as intermediaries that drive networks among triple helix actors. This paper investigates how cluster initiatives intermediate within a triple helix context in terms of actors’ involvement and dependency patterns between their maturity and member enrolment. A sample of 253 European initiatives was contacted of which 136 (53%) responded. The results show that two factors influence attraction of new target members in cluster initiatives: namely age of the initiative and the presence of key players and support groups. Our findings lead to a number of implications for policymakers, such as the importance of long-term financing of well-functioning cluster initiatives despite their age.

As societies strive to address current environmental challenges new markets and opportunities are opening up for both businesses and entrepreneurs implement sustainability within their operations. In a recent report by OECD (2013) it is noted that green entrepreneurs in general have to overcome higher barriers than other entrepreneurs, e.g. concerning regulations, immature markets and shortages of skills. Thus, one key question is how identification, evaluation and exploitation of business opportunities related to sustainable innovation and green business can be effectively supported by organizations such as business incubators. The aim of this study is to investigate business incubators in three European countries with the highest positions on European Union’s Eco-Innovation Scoreboard from 2014 (Finland, Germany, Sweden) with respect to how they manage sustainability aspects. More specifically, we are studying how sustainability in social and environmental terms is integrated into incubators’ processes for selection and support of their tenants. The data was collected through a survey where we reached the management of 360 business incubators in the three countries and received 96 responses. We show that there is substantial interest among incubators to gain an image of being sustainability-profiled. However, this image does not seem to be supported with practical organizational routines when selecting and supporting tenants. While the majority of incubators in Finland, Germany and Sweden consider sustainability an important issue for incubation, few incubators actually offer sustainability specific services or advice (e.g. related to ecodesign or marketing of green products). This is a clear gap in the existing entrepreneurship support system that should be addressed by policymakers, stakeholders and managers of incubators.

Eco-innovation continues to gain support as a driving force for sustainable development. In this regard, pressing questions include how to stimulate the development, diffusion and use of eco-innovations. Often, firms engaged with eco-innovation need to connect to intermediary organizations (e.g. business development organizations, regional clusters, universities, financers, incubators) to get hold of necessary resources to tackle the challenges in the innovation process. This article analyses the functions of such intermediary organizations for eco-innovation by focusing on public–owned business development organizations and cluster initiatives in the Region Scania, Sweden and North Rhine Westphalia, Germany.  We synthesise at least eight functions of intermediaries for eco-innovation as: (i) forecasting and road mapping (ii) resource mobilization (iii) networking and partnerships (iv) commercialization (v) technical consulting (vi) information scanning and distribution (vii) sector branding and legitimation (viii) prototyping and piloting.  The support functions often take a “one-size-fits-all” approach with few initiatives particularly tailored for eco-innovations. This can be explained by the market complementarity roles of public intermediaries, their resource constraints and the cross-sectoral nature of eco-innovation. Even though, intermediary functions are often appreciated by clients and financers, it is often difficult to establish a causal relation between the support and eco-innovation outcomes, a challenge which undermines the existence of intermediaries themselves. Despite these challenges, potential good practices point to a mix between general “one-size-fits-all” and tailored support activities for different types of eco-innovations and firms. Furthermore, interaction between various types of intermediaries is important since there are often numerous actors and initiatives working with eco-innovation which can confuse firms. When it comes to stimulating radical eco-innovations, a proactive approach to intermediation is particularly important. 

Cluster development is prioritized in policy programmes as a means to facilitate regional growth and job creation. Triple Helix actors are often involved in so-called cluster initiatives – intermediary organizations having the objective of the development of a local or regional cluster. This paper maps out the ‘big five’ qualitative success factors in cluster initiative management: the idea; driving forces and commitment; activities; critical mass; and organization. The proposed framework enables the assessment of performance and sustainability over time, useful for both everyday management operations and policy programmes designed to support cluster initiatives.

This paper uses a multidisciplinary and systematic review of 45 journal articles and two case interviews to investigate the role of public support organizations in the development of eco-innovations. Even though eco-innovations are regarded as a driving force within sustainable development, entrepreneurs developing such innovations face barriers such as lack of some technical expertise, limited financial, time and human resources. Generally, two aspects are needed for eco-innovation support i.e. support for technology as well as business development. The selected public support organizations offered business development support through networking, bridging and financing. However, preliminary findings on their current support activities indicate bridging to other actors who can provide technical expertise such as environmental impact assessment and eco-design could be a promising addition to business development. Potential further research includes deeper empirical investigations on the role of public support actors in the development of eco-innovations.

This paper focuses on mixed methods for teaching and learning; with special emphasis on individualized learning and engagement of students for reaching better results and relevance in CDIO (Conceiving, Designing, Implementing and Operating)-based engineering education. Four types of learning activities are discussed in the paper; “flipped classroom”, “experiential learning exercises”, “sharp live cases” and “theory-based practical exercises”. The empirical material consists of the authors’ own teaching experience. Based on a literature review and our own experience, we propose a model of components crucial to take into account when learning activities are designed and practiced. These components are stakeholders, pedagogics, technology and context.

Introduction 

Intermediaries are important actors in the regional context, especially regarding linking various actors together in triple helix constellations (Leydesdorff & Etzkowitz 1998; Etzkowitz et al 2000). As organisations become more specialized, there arises a need for intermediaries that fill the gaps between firms, academia and policy actors. Nakwa et al (2012) have for example found that intermediaries have a vital role in promoting triple helix networks. They suggest that intermediaries have three particularly important roles: channeling resources to industry; brokering & linking triple helix actors; and boundary spanning through knowledge circulation facilitation.

One type of intermediary organization that has grown in importance over the past decade is the so called cluster initiative (Ahedo, 2004). Cluster initiatives are organizations that visualize, explore and frame potential opportunities into useful middle-hands activities which become a formalized part of their portfolio. Through these activities they satisfy own and stakeholders’ needs, initiate joint networks between market actors, as well as promote technological and economic development territory of their location (Lundvall & Borras, 1997; Johannison & Lindholm Dahlstrand, 2009). On this basis they are sometimes characterized as “soft sides” of regional development (Simmie, 2004). One definition of the cluster initiative has recently been formulated by Ketels & Memedovic (2008) which state that it is an entity performing collaborative activities for different market actors to improve competitiveness of their region by creating interactive platforms and dialogues between the involved parties. Through performing such activities they aim to relate and connect actors to each other (Lagendijk & Cornford, 2000). Cluster initiatives are often rather small organizations employing just a few individuals, but are working in large networks and can attract various actors to their activities. This might enable them to be more flexible, fast-moving and efficient in realizing the real needs of stakeholders and members.

Despite the emergence of a large number of cluster initiatives and their recognized importance in regional development, there are relatively few studies of this phenomenon. This subject also needs to be further explored in the context of the triple helix (Nakwa et al 2012).

In this paper we will study how cluster initiatives stimulate regional development through their intermediating role within the triple helix. A specific interest is to analyze involvement of actors from different sectors and how it impacts provided resources and activities

Method

In this study 253 European cluster initiatives have been contacted during the autumn of 2012. Cluster initiatives from eight European countries (Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and United Kingdom) have been selected. In total 136 cluster initiatives representing all these countries answered our questionnaire (response rate 53%). The answers were collected mainly via structured interviews with leaders or central individuals from the cluster initiatives and in some cases via a web-based form. The interviews were conducted over the telephone and lasted for approximately 60 minutes. The questionnaire included 39 questions and was pilot-tested and modified before the main data collection. The main sections within the questionnaire dealt with general characteristics, types of actors involved, activities, tasks and resources. A number of tentative hypotheses have been formulated and have been tested on the collected data. These deal with following areas:

1)      Actors’ involvement and roles in tasks such as formulation of strategy, provision of resources (both hard and soft), and organization of day-to-day activities

2)      Influence of factors such as age, geographical scope and type of provided activities on the number of members participating in the cluster initiatives

3)      Change and development of activities and composition of actors

The collected data has been analyzed using SPSS and methods such as factor analysis and multiple regression.

Findings

Our preliminary findings suggest that a multitude of actors are involved in the strategic tasks of cluster initiatives, such as formulation of mission, vision and objectives. Meanwhile, the operative tasks are handled by internal staff of the cluster initiatives and to some extent external personnel.

Although we found several intriguing results in predicting how cluster initiatives are able to attract members, we believe one such finding is that older and more established cluster initiatives tend to be better equipped for attracting more members, while younger cluster initiatives depend on having more committed sponsors/key players in order to be able to attract and maintain members.

The data reveal significant changes in cluster initiatives over time. Regarding change, we found that many cluster initiatives increase the number of networking and marketing activities with time. We also found that the involvement of key players and support actors vary over time. We provide a tentative explanation for why time is important to consider in understanding the governance of cluster initiatives, and structuring the overall scope and service offering to effectively attract members from target groups.

Conclusions and implications 

In this study we have investigated how cluster initiatives stimulate regional development through their intermediating role within the triple helix. We have found that cluster initiatives are organized in a specific way as an intermediating actor. Three groups of actors are connected to a cluster initiative in different ways. There is a target group which most often consists of firms from a selected industry and/or region. Furthermore, there is a support group which can be made up of research as well as public sector organisations. Finally, cluster initiatives have one or several key players which can for example provide different type of resources and guarantee the long-term survival and development of the intermediary. The key player can be for example a university, municipality or another public sector organisation.

One important conclusion from this paper is that many cluster initiatives have several key players from different sectors that all have influence on the strategy and operative activities of cluster initiatives. There are many advantages as well as disadvantages of being supported and governed by several key players. The advantages could probably be a more steady provision of necessary resources for long-term development and increased legitimacy towards all stakeholders. On the negative side, having several key players can provide complications for management of a cluster initiative, possibly reducing flexibility and degrees of freedom. There is also a risk for prolonged decision-making processes due to the multitude of actors involved. This could raise the question of whether there exist an optimal number of key players. Our data suggest that younger cluster initiatives potentially have a greater need for having several key players in order to establish themselves as a stable and trustworthy partner and overcome the “liability of newness” (Stinchcombe 1965). More mature cluster initiatives may be better off with fewer key players or key players that are aligned and share common visions and ideas on the development of the cluster initiative.

The CDIO Syllabus includes a section dealing with Enterprise, Societal and Environmental Context (Section 4) that was extended in 2011, which implies its growing importance. The goals and content of this section differ from those of the core engineering sections and include awareness of the impact of engineering on society and environment as well as management of people and resources. It may be challenging to teach and learn these topics within the timeframe of already dense educational programs. In this paper we present both the ways of incorporating this section into curricula and a survey of student learning experiences using engineering programs at Linköping University, Sweden, as the empirical setting. Our study covers five engineering programs: Applied Physics & Electrical Engineering; Computer Science and Engineering; Engineering Biology; Industrial Engineering & Management; and Mechanical Engineering. The results show that some of the programs incorporate Section 4 topics mainly through project courses where student teams work on specified assignments within their programs’ focus area (such as software) while training their project management skills and gaining insights into business and societal context. Other programs, especially Industrial Engineering & Management, include several courses where Section 4 topics are learned through lectures, seminars, experiential learning and less extensive group assignments. The results from our survey of students’ learning experiences show that students vary in their evaluation with regard to section 4 topics, with for example Mechanical Engineering students valuing their program higher than others when it comes to their learning about responsibilities of engineers to the society. Industrial Engineering & Management students on the other hand value their program higher than others concerning learning of topics such as business context. We also show that extra-curricular activities in the form of active engagement in students clubs at the university are beneficial for developing leadership abilities during engineering education.

This paper focuses on actors and activities of cluster initiatives which are intermediaries within clusters of similar and related firms. A case study method is used; the cases show that their success and longevity depend to a large extent on their actors sharing a common vision. It is proposed that actors involved in cluster initiatives can be categorised according to a typology consisting of key players, target and support groups. Managing cluster initiatives requires striking a balance between well-developed and anchored targeted activities and experimental activities exploring future needs. This requires some openness and flexibility within the shared vision. Cluster initiatives can therefore be viewed as dream-catchers that rather than control and govern the clusters perform a more subtle role of gathering and visualizing potential opportunities in regional contexts and articulating and realizing them through an entrepreneurial process.

Network-building activities of PhD students are an important area of study in furthering our understanding of academic entrepreneurship. This paper focuses on PhD students’ participation in network-building activities defined as mobility and collaboration, as well as own interest in and perceived grade of support for commercialisation from various levels of the university hierarchy. The results of a large-scale survey (of 1,126 PhD students at Linköping University, Sweden, 41% response rate) presented here show that the majority of PhD students are engaged in collaborations with external organisations, though quite few (one quarter) have spent a part of their PhD education outside their home university. PhD students from all faculties are on average interested in commercialisation and in favour of it. However, PhD students from the faculty of Health Sciences state that it is difficult for them to combine research and commercialisation. Furthermore, interest in commercialisation of research results is relatively lowest amongst those PhD students who are undertaking mobility placements at other universities, thus pointing to an experienced incompatibility of research and academic entrepreneurship.

Absorptive capacity and integration skills of firms are crucialfactors when it comes to reaping the benefits from universityindustryrelations. Education and training of individuals withboth academic and industrial experience that can act asbrokers of knowledge is therefore of great importance. Duringrecent years industrial graduate schools have been developedas an answer to this challenge. We investigate them throughan interview study with PhD students and supervisors. We alsoassess long-term impact through interviews with graduatedindividuals focusing on their use of integration skills withintheir work. We conclude that although industrial graduateschools require a multitude of favourable conditions in orderto realise their potential they are also a powerful tool fordeveloping absorptive capacities of PhD students andsupervisors. We show that positive effects of industrialgraduate schools extend in time, through increased capacitiesto e.g. participate in collaborative R&D projects or educatenew students.

Past important regional advantages have mainly consisted of geographically bound natural resources such as rivers, iron ores or oil fields. While these remain important, we can likewise observe an advancement of regional advantages which can be constructed and developed through strategies and policies, on both regional and national level. Such regional advantages include entrepreneurial & business climate, knowledge infrastructure, cultural & recreational amenities and education institutions (Asheim et al 2007; Whisler et al 2008).

Universities are especially important organisational actors for regional growth (Etzkowitz & Klofsten, 2005; Audretsch et al., 2005; Sharma et al., 2006). They support local economic development through mechanisms such as: local business communities benefit from knowledge and technology transfer; new human, knowledge, and financial resources are attracted from elsewhere; new public spaces for local conversations are provided; additional amenities, e.g. local services, are created which seems to increase the attractiveness of the region (Lester, 2005; Shapiro, 2006; Mellander & Florida, 2011). University regions attract and retain students and this is a major factor for population growth (Goldstein & Drucker, 2006; Winters, 2011a, 2011b; Haapanen & Tervo, 2011). However, the objection that research universities are not the panacea for regional development is a point of considerable debate (Doloreaux & Parto, 2004; Brulin et al., 2009).

The purpose of this paper is to study how constructed regional advantages in the form of tertiary education institutions contribute to regional development in Sweden. In particular, we focus on development indicators such as population growth, entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, and regional income.

We use data from Swedish Agency for Higher Education and Statistics Sweden covering population in all Swedish municipalities as well as all tertiary education institutions. We use quantitative methods in order to study growth patterns in the municipalities, comparing population growth of university/university college cities with other places. Furthermore, we use qualitative methods and case studies when further investigating the processes underlying these patterns.

The findings show that that the presence of tertiary education institutions has been a major contributor to the increase in population in Swedish municipalities between 1970 to present. This implies that regional development strategies and policies aiming at building and strengthening university colleges and universities are important and viable tools for stimulating regional growth.

This article explores the role of labour mobility as a potential cluster advantage. We review the theoretical arguments as for how and why labour mobility could enhance the dynamism and performance of clusters of similar and related firms. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data from two information and communication technology (ICT) clusters is used to answer two research questions: (1) What is the role of mobility enhancing (or restricting) institutions in clusters? and (2) In what ways does labour mobility contribute to knowledge transfer within clusters? The two ICT clusters studied in the article generally seem to have higher levels of mobility, compared to the labour market at large. Although it is regarded as beneficial in theory, most cluster firms try to restrict mobility of workers since they fear the risk and costs of losing staff. Labour mobility is also rarely viewed as a viable way to increase the knowledge bases or contact networks of firms. However, when firms need to recruit the clustered labour markets seem to benefit them by facilitating the use of informal recruitment processes. By way of conclusion it is suggested that cluster firms might be under-investing in mobility and that innovative institutional solutions could help realize clusters mobility potential.

Clusters started recently became to be called as the “fuels” for national economic growth (Audretsh, 2000). They are seen as drivers for entrepreneurship and innovation through assisting firms with complementary competencies and creating arenas for collaborations (Oakey, 2007; Porter, 2000). Clusters combine different types of actors by providing linkages between them. Similar approach is raised in the Triple Helix model. These models highlight importance of variety of relations within clusters. The diversity of actors leads to the need for organizations specializing in intermediating between them.  This is what we call a cluster-like organization – an organization that operate within a cluster and intermediate between different actors with a certain aim. They could be very small but in the same time take advantage of the size and resources of a cluster (c.f. Kaiser, 2003; Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff , 1998; Etzkowitz & Klofsten, 2005). In this paper we approach cluster-like organizations as intermediaries, which “go in between” others to fulfill a certain need for their stakeholders. However, there are very few studies about cluster-like organizations as intermediaries and relatively little knowledge about how they operate in this particular role. This study therefore addresses the issue of the intermediating roles within various types of cluster-like organizations and provides answers on questions in what way clusters intermediate, which actors involved in this process and how such cluster role was developed.

 The universities are expected to contribute to the society in manifold ways; their main tasks include supplying the labour market with educated workers, developing scientific knowledge, both basic and applied, and recently also supporting entrepreneurial initiatives and commercialisation of research results. PhD education constitutes a considerable part of many universities’ activities and PhD students perform a large share of research. Yet there are few studies concerned with PhD students’ possibilities to commercialise research results or the university context supportiveness in this regard. Therefore, this paper investigates PhD students’ views on commercialisation and perceived grade of support from various levels of the university hierarchy. Moreover, the extent of mobility and external collaborations during PhD education and their correlations with opinions of PhD students are studied. These aspects are studied through analysis of data from a survey of 465 PhD students at Linköping University, Sweden.

The results show that PhD students are on average slightly positive towards commercialisation of research results, although there are differences between various faculties. The university context is perceived as slightly supportive, except for the department and division levels at the faculties of Arts & Sciences (incl. Educational Sciences) and Health Sciences. A majority of PhD students are involved in external collaborations as a part of their PhD education, while a quarter have been spending a part of their PhD studies at another organisation. PhD students’ views on commercialisation are more connected to the direction of mobility than to mobility per se, while for external collaboration interest in commercialisation is lowest amongst those not involved in collaboration at all.

Innovation processes involve diverse sets of organizations including universities, private firms, corporate research labs and public research institutes. Collaborative forms of knowledge production and innovative activity enable actors to reduce risk, specialize, and take advantage of knowledge internal and external to the own organization.

This paper discusses interactions and collaborations between public and private sector innovation. This is done through an analysis of semi-public research institutes in Sweden and their roles as arenas for R&D processes involving industry, university and government in terms of funding, research and public-private innovation. Particular attention is paid to technological niches of research institutes and utilization of research findings from collaborative R&D.

The results show that institutes occupy specific niches which influence their ways of transferring knowledge. It is argued that diversity among R&D performers as well as funding opportunities is paramount for innovation systems to thrive.

In the university context we see an intensified co-operation with industry which includesmobility aspects e.g. PhDs increasingly working in the private sector. This is a desirabledevelopment since it encourages network formation, knowledge transfer and innovation. Dueto that we have devoted our interest to the formation of PhD students’ professional networksthrough mobility as part of doctoral education. The following questions are addressed in thispaper: 1) How could a mobility program for PhD students be designed and implemented? 2)How are mobility aspects of PhD studies affected by career plans and existing networks in thestudents’ research teams? The data used in this study comes from a novel Swedish approachto PhD education in life science technologies - a program called AgoraLink (ALP). The resultsshow that ALP is in many cases used to develop existing links with industry in the participants’home country and research organisations abroad. Furthermore, the PhD students admitted toextramural activities tend to have well articulated career plans and use the program to realizetheir ambitions. Finally, ALP seems to catalyse mobility and development of previouslyestablished contacts by providing a framework and legitimacy.

Innovation processes in emerging fields of technology frequently utilize scientific knowledge and technical skills from several research areas. Likewise, technological development frequently involves a diverse set of organizations including for example private firms, universities, corporate research labs and public or semi-public research and technology organizations (RTOs). These processes spur the need for both organizational and institutional change and adjustment, e.g. in order to facilitate research and development (R&D) and formation of innovation networks. The main question analyzed in the paper is how RTOs cope with integrating new skills in their competence base in the quest for exploring new emerging science fields and technology applications. The empirical setting consists of Swedish semi-public industrial research institutes active in the fields of pulp & paper technology and electronics, optics & communication technology respectively. The results of the study bring attention to three ways of integrating diverse skills and types of actors in R&D networks. These are: organization of collaborative research in formalized industry-specific R&D programs, purposeful organizational change also including redefinition of categories of core research competence and finally by targeting ‘open’ innovation processes characterized by incorporation of both end-users and skills of neighboring technology areas.