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The European higher education sector is moving online, but to what extent? Are the digital disruptions seen in other sectors of relevance for both academics and management in higher education? How far are we from fully seizing the opportunities that an online transition could offer? This insightful book presents a broad perspective on existing academic practices, and discusses how and where the move online has been successful, and the lessons that can be learned.

With an increasing focus on the knowledge and service economies, it is important to understand the role that entrepreneurial universities play through collaboration in policy and, in turn, the impact they have on policy. The authors evaluate how universities engage with communities while also balancing stakeholder considerations, and explore how universities should be managed in the future to integrate into global society effectively.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems have emerged as one of the most dynamic forces shaping the economic performance of individuals, companies and regions. This book brings together some of the leading scholarship and research identifying and analyzing the role of universities in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Particular emphasis is given on the role of innovation, startups, SMEs and technology transfer both in shaping the entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as the resulting impact on firm performance and regional economic performance.

The role of resources is pivotal in entrepreneurship for the success of new and small ventures, though most face resource constraints. The book offers multiple perspectives on analysing and understanding the importance of resources in entrepreneurship development. Approaching the subject with both a practice-theory and research-based approach, the contributors analyse topics such as processes and structures in social entrepreneuring; entrepreneurship and equity in crowdfunding; and forming alliances with large firms to overcome resource constraints. The contributors provide evidence, for example, on how business angels can contribute more than finance to small ventures and how the flexibility of resources is important in internationalisation.

The next decade will be transformative for the higher education sector. Government funding is decreasing. Through their marketing activities universities have created the ‘student consumer.’ The student consumer is prepared to shop around, compare prices and value, and once purchased expects a return on their investment. Disruptive innovations are challenging traditional forms of learning and in many cases are viewed as better alternatives to traditional learning in the classroom. Competition from private educational providers is increasing. Their cost base is lower, and their customer focus is superior. In short, universities around the world are facing a perfect storm. While experts don’t expect the higher education sector to collapse under these challenges, they do believe that for some institutions the future looks bleak. If universities are to avoid closures or mergers, they will need to adopt a market-oriented approach.

Academic entrepreneurship is a multifactorial and multidimensional phenomenon. This book presents research featuring aspects of academic entrepreneurship at the regional, institutional, and organizational levels of analysis. Phillip H. Phan and the authors illustrate that the more interesting aspects of this subject are in the ‘tails of the distribution,’ where counter-intuitive findings from the data call simple theories into question and inspire a vigorous discussion of alternatives.

Unique ideas, insights and themes from diverse disciplines—from engineering, science and medicine to arts, design, and music—have the potential to enrich and deepen our understanding of entrepreneurship. This book brings together contributions from an eclectic set of entrepreneurship scholars and educators from different fields to advance cross-disciplinary entrepreneurial thinking.

This book provides readers with an in-depth understanding of the many ways in which universities contribute to economic development and growth. It demonstrates the causal interactions between universities’ activities and economic outcomes, and presents up-to-date quantitative and qualitative data in support. The authors present the theoretical tools and evidence to explain the manner and degree to which universities’ activities impact the economy, as well as analysing the comparative strengths and weaknesses of specific university systems.

For the first time, data on individual European higher education institutions (rather than data aggregated at the country level) is used in order to examine a wide range of issues that are both theoretically challenging and relevant from policy-making and societal perspectives. The contributors integrate statistics on universities and colleges with other sources of information such as patents, start-up firms and bibliometric data, and employ rigorous empirical methods to address a range of key questions, including: what is the role of non-university tertiary education, such as vocational training? How important is the private sector? Are European universities internationalized? Are they efficient from the point of view of costs and educational output? Are there pure research universities in Europe? How do universities contribute to economic growth?