Academic Entrepreneurship in the Post-COVID Era and Sustainable Development

Over the last 25 years, universities have become engines for economic development and the improvement of social well-being, thanks mainly to changes in their former image as a disruptive element. Indeed, the last 25 years have been transformative years for universities, which have begun to incorporate the application of their research findings into their missions and goals as a means by which to contribute to the development and growth of the region where they are located. In this way, what some authors have called the third mission has become integrated into their traditional missions of teaching and research. By the third mission, we mean the activities of technology transfer or academic entrepreneurship, that is, the transfer to society of the research results of scientists who are part of universities and higher education centers. This academic undertaking has achieved great importance within universities, drawing the attention of both those responsible for public policy and those responsible for the universities, who have tried to promote it through various channels. However, this complex process has not occurred in equal measure in all regional settings or in all areas of knowledge, making it necessary to study what the factors are that contribute to or impede such development and which policies have been the most effective in promoting academic entrepreneurship. By the same token, academic entrepreneurship has taken very different paths, manifesting itself through various forms and with different consequences for universities and for academics. Specifically, this academic endeavor has moved from traditional and formal means of transfer to other less traditional and less formal means. Among the usual means, we can find transfer methods such as patents and licenses. Others that are more contemporary but equally formal include the creation of university spin-offs (USOs). There also involve informal transfer methods such as open science and the participation of academics in forums and debates, promoted largely thanks to the advancement and dissemination of new technologies. Despite its importance, however, relatively little attention has been devoted to the study of this phenomenon, which requires the adoption of different theoretical and methodological approaches as well as contextual analysis, so as to be able to draw conclusions that will result in a greater understanding of it and in the gathering of information that will lead to more beneficial decision-making.

In a situation like the current one, in which the COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic collapse in many developed countries, academic entrepreneurship—being a generator of economic growth and employment from applications based on knowledge—is showing itself to be an even more important factor. Indeed, during the pandemic, universities and advanced research centers have been increasingly relied upon for help in solving this real, palpable, and current problem, with increases in budgets dedicated to research. Moreover, it is the technical and technological sectors that have best withstood the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, which is yet another example of the enormous potential and virtues of academic entrepreneurship. It is also expected that the post-COVID-19 situation will change the operating system of the technology transfer offices (TTOs) and of the various universities. It is therefore necessary to study these changes and their consequences.

Dear Colleagues,

The scope and purpose of this Special Issue is the study of academic entrepreneurship and its determining factors and consequences. For this, we anticipate receiving not just specific case studies but also comparative, longitudinal, and multilevel studies that allow for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon and provide practical insights helpful to future decision-making. Specifically, this Special Issue tries to answer three basic questions:

1. How is technology transfer taking place in universities, and what paths is it most commonly taking? In this sense, the contributions should study issues such as the existing types of transfer, the evolution of these types of transfer, their promotion, the policies applied over the years for their enhancement, and the classifications that can be made based on such criteria as their contribution to economic and social development, levels of university financing, the bureaucratic procedures that are involved, and the personal characteristics of those individuals who choose to engage in such transfers.
2. What are the factors that condition or determine the choice of one path or another and that condition or determine its success? In particular, the personal, institutional, organizational, and political factors that lead to choosing one or another means of technology transfer need to be studied, as does the influence of the education received in such choice. It is also necessary to study those factors that contribute to the success of the transfer, paying special attention to the determinants of the success of university spin-offs (USOs) as the star method of formal transfer in recent years. In short, we propose the study of the main capacities, abilities, and personal and organizational resources, formal and informal institutions and their decisions, public policies, the role of technology transfer offices (TTOs), the importance of assessment of the transfer for the academic curriculum, and the objectives of the academic in choosing the means of technology transfer to employ.
3. What consequences does academic entrepreneurship have for universities, for the region where the university is located, for the professional and personal career of the academic, and for sustainability? Specifically, what are the contributions to economic and social development as well as employment of activities connected with the third mission of universities? We also propose studying the contribution of technology transfer activities to the financing of universities, the professional promotion and personal consideration enjoyed by the academic, the relationship between transfer and sustainability, and the image of transfer activities within the deontology of the academic profession.

Topics of interest for submission include, but are not limited to

• R&D and project management
• Institutions and policies to enhance academic entrepreneurship and innovation
• Regional and global dynamics of academic entrepreneurship and innovation
• University spin-off foundation
• Social academic entrepreneurship
• Academic entrepreneurship and sustainability
• University spin-off survival and management  
• University and science-based innovation and technology transfer
• Determining factors of academic entrepreneurship
• Formal channels for technology transfer
• Informal channels for technology transfer
• Patents, licensing, and intellectual property
• Open science and distributed innovation
• Third mission management 

Prof. Francisco Miranda González
Mr. Francisco I. Vega Gómez
Guest Editors

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• academic entrepreneurship
• R&D management
• university spin-offs
• third mission
• technology transfer
• academic entrepreneurs