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This paper explores the effects of gamification (a game-based student response system) on student learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The data, collected through a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews with 32 learners, were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis (i.e., template analysis). Based on an in-depth analysis of the data using NVIVO 10, the authors propose and apply the "PERI" model to develop multi-focal insights into gamification and its influences on student learning. The model proposed is original and comprehensive, encompassing (1) Preferabilities (P), (2) Experiences (E), (3) Recommendations (R), and (4) Impressions (I). Although most of the findings were positive with regard to application and receptivity across all dimensions of the PERI model for the gamification tool--a game-based student response system (GSRS) used for delivering education--they also reveal areas in need of development for the successful embedding of gamifying technology--enhanced learning provisions and their efficacy in teaching and learning pedagogy. The conclusions of this study outline implications for educators, students, education leaders, and gamification product developers.

Leadership and its development within higher education remain a black box for scholars and practitioners, as its implications are not sufficiently theorized in the literature. Building on that notion, this paper aims to offer a theoretically grounded framework to understand the constituents and transition of leadership development in an economy that aspires to be a knowledge-based economy. The work is ethnographic in nature, and its empirical findings are derived from semi-structured interviews with academic leaders and experts who help shape the policies in higher education and its impact. The paper has implications for practitioners and policymakers in trying to align the higher education sector with the overall economic objectives of the nation.

This article explores the transition in course delivery from a paper-based format to blended learning, and highlights the role of the virtual learning environment (VLE) in this process. Professional practice in postgraduate programmes in particular is investigated during this transition stage at the University of Dundee (UoD) in Scotland, and the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien (UASTW) in Austria. In this transition, UoD is developing and implementing a "Master's Framework" supported by the VLE, "MyDundee", which is built on the Blackboard e-learning platform. Similarly, UASTW is exploiting the Campus Information System (CIS) based on the open-source e-learning platform Moodle. Although the methods used to promote and practise e-learning differ at the two universities, their common aim is to support students' and professionals' learning when face-to-face contact time between students and tutors is significantly reduced. The use of collaborative and peer-assessed tools like e-portfolios, newsletters, discussion forums, Wikis and group puzzles are used as means of satisfying a delivery model which reflects socially constructivist principles of learning. (Contains 7 figures.)

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review on University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) in Vietnam, marking the first systematic examination of practice-based studies within the country. Our review aims to identify key forms and factors influencing UIC implementation in Vietnam, recommending future directions and highlighting key facilitators. Following the PRISMA 2009 guidelines, we identified 256 research papers across four databases (Web of Science, ERIC, ProQuest, and Google Scholar), ultimately selecting 25 papers after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and conducting duplicate removal. Thematic and inductive qualitative content analysis methods were employed to address the review question, revealing observed forms of UIC in Vietnam, including sponsorship, internships, licensing, knowledge transfer, and cooperative recruitment. Influencing factors encompass 10 elements. Our review identifies deficiencies in UIC implementation and suggests potential areas for future development. These findings pave the way for exploring innovative UIC strategies amidst industrialization and globalization.

Charities are facing a crisis in recruiting board trustees. Additionally, boards have been criticised for lacking diversity and being unrepresentative of society. The purpose of this paper is to propose a solution to the problem of trustee recruitment, by considering university business students as trustees. Through an analysis of advertised trustee jobs, the proposal is evaluated against degree subject benchmark statements. The findings identify some key person characteristics specified by charities when recruiting trustees. The generic criteria could be met by most students and many of the personal skills are developed by students while at university. However, to address some of the experience criteria, may require additional training and some yielding by charities. The paper offers originality in its proposition of appointing university business students as trustees and in its approach to examining the feasibility of that proposition through an analysis of trustee jobs.

Enhancing graduate employability is an increasing focus within higher education, however, although part-time work is a majority experience for students the skills gained through non-professional employment are often treated as having limited value in constructions of graduate employability. This paper engages in dialogue with a series of viewpoint and research articles in this journal advocating the accreditation of this work by higher education institutions to increase its influence in graduate recruitment. Specifically, these articles challenge students to improve their employability by reflecting on and documenting their part-time work experiences in support of this accreditation approach. In doing so, it is assumed employers will value this work experience and that such accreditation will improve graduates' employment prospects. In response, reflecting on a study of Australian business students (N = 92), this paper highlights tensions associated with students' part-time work and the perceived employability-enhancing value of what is typically characterised by employers as non-relevant, and therefore non-valuable, work experience. The paper concludes by suggesting that shifting the challenge for recognising the value of non-professional work experience away from students and universities and toward industry and employers is more likely to yield improved graduate employment results for students transitioning from education to graduate employment.

The importance of entrepreneurship in socio-economic development is increasingly present, not only in the papers of researchers but also in the minds of policymakers. In fact, entrepreneurship education has received a lot of attention because of the role it can play in stimulating entrepreneurial intention among students. Given that the tourism and hospitality industry is the economic sector most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines the relationship between entrepreneurship education and tourism entrepreneurial intention and reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneurial intention of students in tourism. Survey data was collected from 502 Moroccan students studying hospitality and tourism and analyzed using SEM-PLS. Our findings show a non-significant effect of entrepreneurial education on tourism entrepreneurial intention in the COVID-19 era. The results also reveal a significant negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneurial intentions of students in tourism.

Potentially, technology transfer offices (TTOs) can play a significant role in facilitating the successful transfer of technologies and knowledge between universities and industry. Many developing countries are currently developing technology transfer practices within their universities. However, many developing country TTOs operate inefficiently or are ineffective. The sharing of experiences can lead to improvements in this endeavour. Advanced nations can serve as a frame of reference and a basis of policy recommendations for developing countries due to the longevity of their technology transfer activities. The authors issued 234 questionnaires to European university TTOs, of which 54 usable questionnaires were returned. They combine the data from these questionnaires with 19 interviews conducted with university TTO staff from 9 countries in an attempt to create a typology of practices that developing nations could emulate to improve technology transfer in their own contexts. While ultimately a clear typology was not forthcoming, the authors found some relationship between the dominant focus in the mission statement of developed country TTOs, the activities they undertake, their position in the university governance structure and their level of maturity which may usefully inform the development of TTO practices in developing countries.

This paper feeds into scholarly interest on place-based creative industrial development. It considers the creative-led economic development of two UK cities, Dundee and Chatham as emerging through a series of interdependent relationships between locally based higher education institutions (HEIs) and cultural and creative industries (CCIs) that are connected as part of a cultural and creative ecosystem (CCE). The discussion reflects on how interconnecting collaborations foster platforms and networks that support a sustainable CCE. Based on the research findings from qualitative investigations within each city, the paper applies the capability approach as a methodological tool to investigate how resources can be converted into tangible, accessible opportunities for local communities. The approach illustrates the need to focus on the resources that connect HEIs to CCIs within a geographical location for sustainable development. It concludes with a series of policy recommendations aimed at local governments to develop more integrated, ecological leadership models and policies to support sustainable CCEs.

This paper reflects on the systematic interconnections between creative workers and higher education institutions (HEIs). Despite the latter representing key intermediaries in creative industries' development and creative workers' career trajectories, the relationship between the two has rarely been framed in a relational and systemic framework. To do so, we chose the UK theatre sector as the case study and adopted a mixed methodology: UK Higher Education Statistical Agency quantitative data, which informed us on the employment state of workers 6 months after graduation, were combined with 21 semi-structured interviews with actors and actresses to understand the complexity of their relationship with HEIs. HEIs emerge as the initial door to paid jobs and professional networks for graduates and as employers for those in the later stages of their careers: the lack of formal ways to access jobs and the precarious working conditions for performers make hence HEIs a crucial force in shaping workers' careers. Furthermore, HE remains throughout the career of theatre workers an important part of their portfolio, providing reliable income and more stable working patterns when needed. The paper concludes with the findings' policy implications and the future role of HEIs in creative and cultural ecosystems.

University-Industry Linkage (UIL) is the interaction of academic or research universities and industries of different sectors for complementary benefits. This paper presents the results of a study conducted to understand the present status and challenges of UIL in the Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia. Using convergent parallel mixed research design, the study addressed two research questions: (1) what is the status of UIL in the Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia? (2) what are the UIL challenges facing universities and industries in the Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia? Respondents were recruited from two universities and eight industries of different business areas including service, manufacturing, finance and energy. A survey questionnaire and interview protocols were developed by adapting items used in previous studies and distributed to a sample size of 1350. The findings show that there are occasional collaborations between the universities and industries in the Region mostly focusing on internship and training. Although communications and meetings are conducted between the universities and industries to create UIL opportunities in Tigray, signed collaboration agreements remain mostly on the shelf mainly due to lack of due attention and commitment from both sides in taking the step forward. Therefore, awareness creation measures and sound policy framework and guidelines should be in place for effective and practical collaborations to exist and get realized.

This paper explores the skills that Hong Kong employers and graduates see as important to have in the workplace as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our data are interviews with 40 employers and 69 graduates in the territory. Using reflexive thematic analysis, our qualitative findings center around four themes. First, we highlight the necessity for graduates to have hard and soft skills when entering Hong Kong workplaces. Second, we reveal the disjuncture that exists regarding the skills that graduates acquire at university and those expected in prospective workplaces. Third, we outline the perceived strength in hard skills possessed by graduates. Fourth, we elucidate the perceived deficit in graduates' soft skills upon entering the workplace. We discuss the implications of our findings not just for understanding the workplace during the pandemic, but also in post-COVID-19 workplaces.

This paper presents the findings of a research study focused on industry-university collaborations within the design studio culture. The study utilized a mixed-methods approach, including a literature review and case studies, to investigate and identify lessons learned from university-industry collaborations for interior design students. Two industry-university collaborations within AU were selected as case studies based on their relevance to the design courses offered in the BSID program. The case studies employed a mixed-methods approach, involving non-participant observations, students' reflection reports, and semi-structured interviews with instructors and industry staff members. This research contributes to the understanding of industry-university collaborations within design studio culture and provides valuable insights for instructors, universities, and industry partners seeking to engage in such collaborations. By highlighting the experiences of instructors at AU, we aim to provide insights into the benefits and challenges of industry-university collaborations for universities that are new to such partnerships. The findings include the importance of embracing exposure and new partnerships, providing real-world experience, balancing autonomy and dependence, understanding the limitations of scope, considering the scale and limitations, navigating bureaucratic procedures, mitigating conflicting interests, adhering to regulations and guidelines, emphasizing positive social impact, and learning from limitations.

This special issue of "Industry and Higher Education" is devoted to a selection of papers, revised for publication, from the Sixth International Conference on "New Horizons in Industry, Business and Education" held on the island of Santorini, Greece, in August 2009. In this introductory paper the author provides an overview of the conference, summarizes the most important presentations, and offers some reflections on the conference outcomes. The key objective of the NHIBE 2009 was to identify the impact of new technologies on education, business and industry. Special attention was drawn to the innovative approaches and experiences developed in education in an effort to adapt teaching methods to the new technological era. Furthermore, business strategies and worldwide educational strategies were emphasized. The major topics were: educational strategies; career counseling; new educational methods; industry and education; entrepreneurship; corporate finance and governance; and business strategies.

Recent guidance for UK government policy makers has warned that HEIs face an uncertain future and has advocated transdisciplinary curricula. Earlier, in 2005, two other UK government papers highlighted the advantages of integrating design-related strategies into business environments and addressed the impact creativity could have on business performance. A key recommendation was to strengthen the relationships between businesses, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and creative professionals from design disciplines who could positively affect business performance and provide digital media, industrial design, packaging, graphic design, branding and advertising. If the successful entrepreneur has personal skills, attributes and behaviours that extend beyond the purely commercial, HEIs need to develop students with capabilities that meet the entrepreneurial challenges of the knowledge economy. This paper draws on entrepreneurship and business education strategies that have evolved out of art and design disciplines at Swansea Metropolitan University in the UK. The authors argue that curriculum development should incorporate "business" acumen in all programmes outside business schools and should develop the fundamental skills for developing and exploiting "creativity" in programmes within them. The provision of a symbiotic experience of business and creativity across the curriculum has many benefits, not least because it responds to calls from entrepreneurship educators for a paradigm shift to develop right-brain entrepreneurial capabilities as well as left-brain analytical skills. Such pedagogies are well-established in the design disciplines and the evidence suggests that they are important as a wide-reaching, cross- disciplinary enabling strategy. (Contains 4 notes, 1 table, and 1 figure.)

The objective of the study reported here was to ascertain the impact on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers of simulating having and being a non-executive director (NED) within the GOLD programme at Lancaster University, the purpose of which is to help owner-managers of SMEs to become better strategic leaders of their companies. Three research approaches were used: (a) participant observation in each of the 20 businesses; (b) interviewing owner-managers; and (c) a review of materials and transcripts generated from Board meetings. Participants engaging in a higher education institution (HEI)-generated network with high levels of trust had an opportunity to behave in a different way; and owners acquired operational and strategic experience of having and being an NED. The initial results indicate that this experience results in greater strategic focus. The engagement of an HEI with SMEs through innovative processes drawn from larger organizations accelerates the creation of trust and social capital, allowing ways of working that might otherwise be dismissed. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure, and 2 notes.)

This paper aims to identify the determinants of perceived future employability among students. A total of 396 university students from a leading university in Lebanon answered a questionnaire about perceived future employability, career ambition, career distress, university commitment, satisfaction with life and self-esteem. In line with the study hypotheses, the authors first establish the psychometric properties of the perceived future employability scale (PFES) in Lebanon and demonstrate the importance of satisfaction with life amid career ambition, career distress, university commitment and self-esteem. The results indicate a good fit to the data for the newly validated future perceived employability scale; moreover, a full mediation effect for satisfaction with life is confirmed. In addition, career ambition, university commitment, satisfaction with life and self-esteem predicted students' PFES. The paper offers insights for students and university counselors on how to better foster perceived employability, and thus the capacity to adequately envision one's career.

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced the availability of work placements in commercial organisations for university students and potentially changed the nature of placements in the future. Similarly, charitable organisations who were already suffering budget restrictions have been financially affected by COVID-19 due to reduced revenue on trading activities, with financial sustainability predicted to be an ongoing issue. The opportunity, therefore, for charities to entice university students to volunteer to support their work, with the lure of developing their employability skills, seems irresistible at this time. The purpose of this paper is to examine the content of job advertisements for volunteer positions to determine the extent to which they specify transferable skills desired of the candidates, or state that they can be developed once employed in the post. The underlying assumption is that, to attract student volunteers, job advertisements will need to explicitly state the transferable skills resulting from the post, since students will be focused on developing employability skills through the volunteering activity to support their graduate careers. The paper offers originality by conducting a content analysis of volunteer jobs and assessing the specified criteria against recognised employability skills. It concludes by challenging charities, students and universities to embrace the opportunity for students to develop transferable skills through volunteering by modifying current practices.

This paper explores the use and impact of experiential learning initiatives in an entrepreneurial university. Data are taken from two sources: interviews with eight academic managers and six focus groups with learners. A mix of narrative structuring and thematic analysis is used to explore the design, delivery and assessment of experiential learning. The authors apply Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory as their theoretical lens. Experiential learning evokes a mixed reaction from academic managers and students. The paper identifies three key themes (design, delivery and outcomes) which help to capture the complex mix of direct and indirect effects that experiential learning initiatives can have at both individual and institutional levels. The authors conclude that embedding experiential learning is a valuable part of the development of an entrepreneurial university.

Notwithstanding a recent upsurge in interest in knowledge intermediaries and their roles in innovation support systems, we know little about the interplay between the activities of academia-driven intermediaries and their publicly financed counterparts. Building on a combination of principles derived from the resource-based theory and entrepreneurial ecosystems literature, this paper investigates the potentials of cooperation between different knowledge intermediaries. Therefore, the authors analyze the alignment of financial, knowledge, market and network resources in politically funded regional alliances between university-internal and university-external intermediaries by means of a qualitative approach. They find that, while knowledge intermediaries can benefit from access to additional ecosystem-specific resources, the urge to improve their own position within the ecosystem hampers the will to cooperate and can lead to non-performing resource alignments. The paper contributes to current scholarly discussions by suggesting and testing a theoretical foundation for analyzing the cooperative behavior of knowledge intermediaries in innovation support systems.

This paper analyses evidence of innovation in the joint work of a company, a university and government in creating a professional Master's degree program in Biotechnology and Innovation Management at the Centro Universitário de Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It presents a new perspective by combining two fields of knowledge: biotechnology and innovation management. The conceptual scheme of Triple Helix spaces is still not well analyzed from an empirical viewpoint. This paper identifies the development of knowledge, consensus and innovation spaces through an examination of this professional Master's course. A qualitative approach was used for the conducting of 20 semi-structured interviews with representatives of the Triple Helix: two directors of Embrapa, a Brazilian agriculture and livestock research company; the President of FAPEMIG, the Minas Gerais Research Support Foundation; nine teachers; and eight students. In addition, data were analyzed from the databases of CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). The results show that the proximity between the knowledge areas of biotechnology and innovation management strengthened this new program, created only 7 years ago, which has already impacted socio-economic regional development.

The transformation of new paradigms for online learning delivery has evolved rapidly over the past few years. For postgraduate programmes, the thesis module is regularly the capstone and significant in terms of academic credits. In reality, this module can be just an 'add on' set of resources with no dedicated online learning space. Industry students undertaking postgraduate programmes online traditionally feel overwhelmed while embarking on a thesis. Notably, too, they face the challenge of not being on campus and having the same learning opportunities as their on-campus counterparts. This paper highlights the importance of supporting and assisting online industry learners in participating fully with their thesis. The authors identify the challenges that face these learners at postgraduate level, recognising that a new way to help and prepare them to carry out and write a good thesis is essential. By focusing on a dedicated online module for 'all things thesis', the paper presents the positive experiences learners can have when participating in this module. The findings emphasise the need for educational providers to offer as part of their programmes a high-quality thesis module designed to support the postgraduate online industry learner.

In this paper the authors explore the implications for higher education of the disruptions caused by changes in the retail sector resulting from rapid developments in technology. Industry 4.0 technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, blockchain, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality are increasingly evident in the retail sector. While predictions vary as to the extent of the disruption, retailers agree that embracing technology is now a necessity. The evidence in the paper is taken from a diverse sample of 60 senior managers across 24 retail companies in Ireland. The authors adopt a mixed-methods approach to data collection. They report that the skills required to perform in retail now and in the future will be a combination of human, digital and traditional skills. What emerges from the study is that advances in technology necessitate the provision of new hard skills, but importantly reinforce the necessity for soft skills so that the potential of the new technology can be fully understood and utilised. Helping retail employees upskill and future proof is a major challenge for higher education. Retailers need to proactively develop their employees by identifying clear progression pathways and promoting careers in retail.

Creative problem-solving has been identified as one of the most critical future-proof skillsets we can develop in our society. When educating future designers, entrepreneurship skills are now considered essential; however, designers find it difficult to establish themselves as entrepreneurs. Therefore, graduate designers are increasingly in need of these skills to complement their creative ability. This paper offers information to academic institutions looking to implement entrepreneurship modules in existing design and creative programmes. The paper seeks to understand the entrepreneurship skills required for product design graduates through a case study. Current teaching practice is described, and interviews and co-design sessions with relevant stakeholders are conducted to inform future entrepreneurship education for product design students. From these findings, a module descriptor entitled 'Entrepreneurship for Designers' was created for an existing programme and delivered through both practice and theory. This module is intended to provide an understanding of the entrepreneurship process and to offer students the confidence to pursue design-related ventures post-graduation.

The Special Focus in this issue of "Industry and Higher Education" comprises three papers that address practical approaches to the critical challenge of preparing students adequately for employment and career development in the 21st century workplace. The papers, refereed, extended and revised for publication in the journal originate from presentations at the Ninth International Conference on New Horizons in Industry, Business and Education held on Skiathos Island, Greece, in August 2015. In this introductory article, the author provides a brief overview of the conference and summarizes the three papers that follow.

University-industry collaboration produces networks that may be capable of innovations, such as novel products and services. The collaboration projects also need to benefit student learning, yet teachers have little clarity with regard to innovation competence development. Individual innovation competence is a set of personal characteristics, knowledge, skills and attitudes that are connected to create concretised and implemented novelties via collaboration in complex innovation processes. The paper reports on the findings from the development and validation of an individual innovation competence assessment tool. The aim is to determine which individual innovation competences are significant in university-industry collaboration and which of these competences are sensitive to educational interventions. The study used a three-phase method involving development of the questionnaire items, validation in teacher and student panels, and a pilot pre- and post-survey study. All seven domains of individual innovation competences were significant and sensitive to educational intervention (a multidisciplinary innovation project conducted with industry). The most responsive competence domains regarding change were concretisation and implementation planning skills, and project management skills. The paper concludes with application opportunities for the tool and recommendations for further research.

Universities globally are aspiring to grow through investing in the delivery of online learning programmes. However, the attrition rate for online learning is high. It has been noted that those students with a sense of belonging to their course experience increased enjoyment and reduced anxiety and are therefore less likely to withdraw. Yet too often programme design guidance to support a sense of belonging for student communities focuses on localised, full-time and young students rather than older, globally dispersed, time-starved students such as those in the online entrepreneurship programme that is the subject of this paper. The authors explore how a sense of belonging in entrepreneurship students can be supported effectively in a virtual learning space throughout their online degree studies. The research presented adopts an interpretivist perspective and includes interviews with eight students studying a 1-year top-up degree in a UK higher education institution. The teaching and support staff interviewed were based solely in the UK. The data collected were examined using thematic analysis. The paper contributes to the debate about what a sense of belonging means in a virtual space for entrepreneurship students and identifies how such students can feel connected and supported to finish their course.

Regional and institutional contexts have been acknowledged as important to the design of entrepreneurship education (EE), yet the importance of place for entrepreneurship has so far received less attention. There is still much work to do in connecting students to places and engaging them in understanding the relationship between entrepreneurship, local communities and local economies within the EE curriculum. Taking inspiration from the notions of place-based and place-conscious learning, the paper proposes a framework for place-based EE and considers challenges for integrating place-based approaches into the EE curriculum. A case study of place-based EE at a university business school is then used to illustrate how the framework can be used to review existing curricula, as well as to reveal how an institution's context might both facilitate and constrain opportunities for place-based learning. The paper provides a contribution by making more visible the important yet often invisible role of place in EE, while being mindful of the needs, resources and educational aims of regions and institutions.

Spin-off companies are generally considered a promising vehicle for developing academic knowledge into products that are ready for the market. In this paper the authors explore under what circumstances spin-off companies can serve as a source of knowledge for the research organization from which they originate. The paper brings together literature from different academic fields to construct an analytical framework for investigating knowledge feedback mechanisms between spin-off companies and their parent research organizations. The authors illustrate the application of this framework in six case studies of parent-spin-off couples in the water technology sector. These case studies show that the interaction with spin-off companies can yield important cognitive benefits for the academic research process, such as an improvement of the research agenda and new insights about the practical operation of theoretical models and technologies. These benefits were facilitated mainly by staff exchange, collaborative research and personal contacts.

This paper analyzes the effects of the combination of two teaching methods on entrepreneurial intention in Tunisia. The developed model suggests that entrepreneurial intention depends on eight cognitive and non-cognitive variables; namely, financial literacy and entrepreneurial knowledge developed through a theoretically-oriented course, and teaching methods, creativity, managing ambiguity, entrepreneurial mindset, entrepreneurial attitude and core self-evaluation developed through a practically-oriented course. The authors use structural equation modeling to test the proposed model, based on a sample of 92 undergraduate management students in the Faculty of Economics and Management of Tunis, Tunisia. The results demonstrate that creativity is a good predictor of students' entrepreneurial intention. Creativity can be developed by entrepreneurial teachers who enhance students' ambiguity management and improve their core self-evaluation. The results also show that financial literacy positively influences entrepreneurial knowledge and managing ambiguity. Entrepreneurial knowledge positively influences entrepreneurial mindset and core self-evaluation. The management students' entrepreneurial mindset positively influences their entrepreneurial attitude, which develops their core self-evaluation. Because the respondents were all studying at the same faculty, the results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to broaden the field of investigation and to include in their studies students from other institutions.

Big Science is a fertile learning environment for the transfer of knowledge and technology to suppliers since it boosts economic performance, innovation and reputation. However, despite the growing importance of this topic in the literature, empirical evidence is still limited. This paper investigates technology transfer from Big Science through procurement relationships related to the need to develop front-end technologies for Big Science research infrastructures. The results show that the benefits generated for companies include intangible dimensions, such as the acquisition of technical knowledge and improved reputation. In addition, this procurement relationship leads to organizational changes such as the introduction of new specific organizational units and improved investment in R&D. In turn companies are able enter new markets thanks to the newly acquired competencies.

This paper presents the findings from a study on the dynamic and nuanced relationship between strategy theory and strategy practice in a South African context. Grounded in a strategy-as-practice perspective and based on an abductive analysis of sixteen semi-structured interviews, the empirical findings deepen our conceptual understanding of how the relationship between strategy theory and strategy practice is constituted. The findings further reveal how practice environments influence the effective use of academic knowledge and skills by graduates in the workplace. Primarily, strategy theory is foundational to effective strategy practice. We theorise that strategy practitioners construct the relevance of strategy theory through adaptation and bricolage to suit complex and eclectic practice contexts. The study findings confirm that strategy theory plays a critical role in shaping and guiding strategy practitioners' praxis. As the ontic sites of knowledge and skills application, practice contexts are important for testing and validating academic knowledge and skills. In this relationship, strategy practitioners are the primary actors who transpose knowledge and skills from academe to business. What they become after completing a qualification is critical.

This paper adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to opportunity recognition competence development. Prior research suggests that opportunity recognition is a relatively neglected area in enterprise and entrepreneurship education. Increasingly, there are calls to look to the creative disciplines for pedagogies that could enhance the creativity required to engage with entrepreneurship. Due to the creative nature of opportunity recognition, this research explores the potential for design education pedagogies to enhance opportunity recognition competence. Informed by the lived experience of design educators, the findings highlight that design education enables many of the attributes, behaviours and skills associated with opportunity recognition. The resultant opportunity recognition education framework suggests that, with the aid of four key enablers, opportunity recognition competence can be developed, moving students from dependence to independence over time.

This paper explores the current state of university-based business incubators (UBIs) in Canada by utilizing both secondary and primary data obtained through desk-based secondary research and semi-structured interviews with UBI managers, academics, and support staff. These data informed the development of nine cases of UBIs in Canada. The data were collected from VoIP (Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol) based semi-structured interviews with 32 participants during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2021-February 2022), from which 9 cases were developed during the pandemic. The key themes derived from the findings were the development of communication skills, curriculum development, extra-curricular activities, industry engagement, innovation, research skills and strategic thinking. The originality of this study lies in its identification of the current state of UBI activities as well as its assessment of the broad range of activities and provisions among Canadian UBIs. The empirical development of showcasing these initiatives is also novel for the efficacy of UBIs concerning institutional and managerial decision-making and operational planning. There are implications for academics, senior management in higher education, entrepreneurs, policymakers and other stakeholders in the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate data relating to the outcomes of enterprise and entrepreneurship education (EEE) activity in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). This is achieved via the use of data obtained from the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF), the Knowledge Excellence Framework (KEF) and the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey. Overall, the analysis suggests, powerfully, that EEE impacts research, teaching and knowledge exchange in a variety of ways. Firstly, it shows that EEE, in terms of the REF, may be up to 46 times more impactful than other management disciplines. Secondly, with regard to TEF submissions, it highlights a positive relationship between the use of the EEE terms and the award level achieved. Finally, research also demonstrates a link between membership of certain HEI mission groups and improved KEF metrics when compared to the sector averages. There is a clear need to research how to develop successful EEE interventions and demonstrate their impact on the graduate, the university ecosystem and the wider economy. These data sources and methodology have not previously been used to develop a narrative for EEE across a university sector in the UK.

The literature on innovation and regional economic development shows widespread references to 'systems' but relatively little application of systems thinking and problem structuring methods. Innovation models are thus under-theorised with operationally-based maps that link the structure of innovation systems to behaviour and possible policy levers. This conceptual paper addresses this shortfall by applying a systems mapping approach to regional innovation ecosystems which sets out the structural drivers and actor inter-relationships in regional economies with universities acting as focal points for knowledge application. A causal feedback map is hypothesised from participative research and the innovation literature, providing an integrative framework and enabling initial policy discussions about the drivers of regional innovation. Hence this model identifies the virtuous reinforcing behaviours that act endogenously within an innovation ecosystem to drive economic growth. Several policy questions concerning regional innovation and university-industry-government collaboration are surfaced by the model. Finally, possible policy interventions are proposed.

This study analyzes the predictive factors influencing the entrepreneurial intentions of students at higher education institutions (HEIs) in a peripheral European region. The study includes a sample of 594 students and uses structural equation models for data analysis. The results show that the attitude to behavior and perceived behavioral control positively influence entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, subjective norms positively impact the attitude to behavior and perceived behavioral control. 'Closer' valuation (i.e., of family, friends, etc) influences attitude to behavior and social valuation positively impacts subjective norms. This research contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial intention as it complements the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) with two environmental factors: closer valuation and social valuation. This is important because it provides evidence of whether the environment of the country in question influences entrepreneurial intention and indicates the need for investment in entrepreneurship education. Consequently, the study contributes to the literature by identifying educational factors that may influence students to become entrepreneurs in a peripheral European region. Further, this paper tests the relationship between the attitude towards behavior and subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms, something not proposed in the original TPB model.

This paper analyzes the effects of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial intention in Morocco. The developed model suggests that entrepreneurship intention depends on two variables, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial passion, mediated by entrepreneurial self-efficacy. We use structural equation modeling to test the proposed model, based on a sample of 148 scientific and technical students from the Higher School of Technology, Khenifra, Morocco. The results demonstrate that entrepreneurial passion has a strong positive relationship on entrepreneurial intention, even when entrepreneurial self-efficacy is introduced as a mediator. Further, the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention is fully mediated by entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The findings confirm that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is a central psychological mechanism that can convert entrepreneurship education into entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, individuals need to feel more self-efficacious in order to choose an entrepreneurial career, and entrepreneurship education should orient students towards an area in which they feel truly passionate.

There is limited experience with innovation policies in rural areas, often based on a one-size-fits-all approach. However, rural businesses have diverse needs and there is difficulty in applying smart specialisation approaches for the use of European Union Cohesion funding in rural areas. A key resource in rural areas is the local university, and universities face increased demands to support local firms. This paper examines one particular case of a university in a rural region and its use of the European Regional Development Fund to support innovation activities. The challenges of working with rural businesses are explored, as is the focus on one-to-one support rather than the more collective smart specialisation approach. Universities need to take a pragmatic approach to ensure that the needs of firms can be balanced with the capacities of rural universities which are often smaller and more specialised than urban universities.

This paper examines the connections and influences of the job market in a Brazilian higher education setting. Adopting a qualitative approach and a technical case study procedure, open and semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed through the discursive textual analysis technique. From the words of the Dean and the Chair of a business management program in a Brazilian higher education institution and the employers of some of its graduates, the authors note that the education delivered is directly influenced and fueled by actual problems and settings in the labor market. Nonetheless, the same market that welcomes these new professionals does not realize its influence and still requires certain behavioral and interpersonal skills from them.

This paper establishes the determinants of professionals' postgraduate training needs. A quantitative survey of a sample of 492 professionals from Valle del Cauca, Colombia was conducted. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling to verify the research hypotheses. The results show that the factors affecting the need for postgraduate training are individuals' perceptions about their level of skill development and about the benefits of professional development. The findings suggest that career advancement is the most valued outcome of postgraduate training. Fieldwork was conducted with a sample of professionals located in the Valle del Cauca in Colombia, so it is important to continue validating the hypotheses in other regions to enable a comparison of results from different contexts. The study contributes to an understanding of the relationship between the variables and the explanation of the determinants of professionals' perceptions of the need for postgraduate training. It also provides elements for decision-making in the strategic design of postgraduate training offerings. Considering the scarcity of research on the variables that determine the need for postgraduate training, this study provides one of the first theoretical and empirical validations of a perceptual measurement scale of professional training needs in Latin America.

This paper explores the nexus between University-Industry Collaborations (UIC) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region informed by a multiple-country-case study design. This study aims to explore the motives, opportunities and challenges, and propose effective practices in the MENA region context. Based on qualitative data retrieved through a series of 72 semi-structured interviews with university stakeholders (i.e., faculty, directors of corporate training, administrative staff, gatekeepers, company representatives and liaisons) conducted from March 2021 to September 2022. The sample was determined by a criterion sampling approach that enabled the development of cases from five countries in the MENA region (United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco) with each country sample comprising five university cases on average. This study was designed on a Multiple Case Study Research Design Approach (Yin, 2013) and this was supplemented by Template Analysis (a form of thematic analysis), and to incorporate the cross-national comparative dimension, Yasin and Hafeez (2022) approaches were adopted. The findings illustrate a wide range of motives, challenges, opportunities, and effective factors that are linked to varying objectives such as (1) the vision and ownership structures, (2) the stakeholder connections of universities (3) the brand reputation of the university provider (4) the perception and ranking of universities as well as (5) approaches undertaken by the University representative to negotiate the expectations of live projects. As a result, a contextualized framework is proposed in this study as the "five [essential] keys" for successful collaborations for the nexus between university and industry collaborations. The originality of this study is inherent in the qualitative cases and contextualized influences in non-westernized countries that are empirically under-explored, as well as the five keys framework that is useful from a theoretical and practical standpoint for academics, policymakers, and university leadership.

Channelized job search powered by perceived employability could help graduates to successfully launch a sustainable career and navigate the job market effectively. The paper develops novel ways to improve the job search process by detailing the interlinking mechanism between perceived employability and active job search. The authors also enquired about the intervening role played by preparatory job search and job search learning goal orientation. For this purpose, cross-sectional data of 317 management graduates in India were collected and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was conducted on the data using IBM Amos. The study found that enhanced perceived employability had a major impact on active job search behaviour. It was also found that it is through job search learning goal orientation and preparatory job search behaviour that perceived employability is associated with an active job search. The study has theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, it links the theory of planned job search behaviour to employability research. Practically, it provides guidelines for universities and career counsellors on how to help students with their job searching. This is one of the first studies to look into the sequential mechanism through which employability perceptions impact active job searching.

As the nature of philanthropy in Canada has changed, the purpose of gifts to higher education is evolving away from infrastructure and towards the development of knowledge and the training of young minds. In this viewpoint, reflecting on my 20 years of experience working closely with funders, including business leaders with private foundations, and corporate foundations themselves, I revisit the relationship between corporate philanthropy and higher education in Canada and conclude that there has been a continuing trend away "from bricks to brain cells".

The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent industry representatives deem employees' readiness as satisfactory for the implementation of Industry 4.0 elements, to determine how the availability of related positions in the market is perceived and, on that basis, to identify the implications for the education system in terms of structure and content. Mixed research of an exploratory sequential design was used. Analyses of in-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 41) were carried out, followed by quantitative data collection (N = 146) through survey items corresponding to formalized research questions. The findings revealed that the set of skills suggested by other researchers as key for implementing Industry 4.0 and ensuring future competitiveness was not recognized as currently necessary or missing by the respondents. Although the respondents appreciate the importance of personal characteristics like responsibility, loyalty, communication skills, and other soft skills, these characteristics and skills are often missing. Respondents from high-tech industries tend to perceive more significant gaps in STEM education and skills. Implications for the education system in terms of its content (STEM and soft skills) and structure (organization of technical education and lifelong learning) are suggested.

The purpose of this study is to add to the literature on entrepreneurial universities by investigating entrepreneurial culture (EC) in higher education institutions (HEIs). The authors investigate how students experience EC and which factors explain their perceptions of EC. The study is based on a survey of HEI students in Finland with 1277 responses. The results show that formal institutional support and institution-level activities have the strongest impact on the students' experienced EC. According to the findings, formal institutional support has a greater impact on students' perceptions of EC than student-driven activities. Furthermore, the results highlight that the encouragement of teachers has a greater influence on students' perceptions of EC than peer students and student-driven activities. Accordingly, the paper's theoretical contribution to the literature lies in its demonstration that institutional support, in addition to the encouragement of teachers, influences HEI students' perceptions of EC. With regard to practical implications, the findings indicate that, if HEIs wish to build an EC and operate entrepreneurially, it is vital to support teachers' entrepreneurial behaviour and thinking. In addition, equal emphasis needs to be placed on the observable artefacts and on clear, well-communicated organisational structures and processes.

This study assesses the impact of different psychological and contextual factors on entrepreneurial motivations and the role of entrepreneurial motivations in determining the entrepreneurial intention of students at Indian universities. The paper also explores whether gender acts as a moderator in the entrepreneurial motivation-intention relationship. Cross-sectional data were collected by administering a questionnaire to 329 students who had received entrepreneurship education during their course program. A confirmatory factor analysis model was run to ensure the model's fitness, reliability, and validity, while structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. The study validates the following key findings. First, the psychological factors of perceived cultural support and entrepreneurship education foster entrepreneurial motivations, which help determine students' entrepreneurial intention, whereas fear of failure negatively affects students' entrepreneurial motivations. Second, the contextual factors of government support policies and access to entrepreneurial finance do not influence entrepreneurial motivations. Third, entrepreneurial motivations significantly enhance the entrepreneurial intention of students. Fourth, gender negatively moderates the entrepreneurial motivation-intention relationship. The study contributes to the literature on the entrepreneurial motivation-intention relationship using psychological and contextual factors and also explores the interaction effect of gender on that relationship.

Based on the definition of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs can be considered as risk-takers. The literature contains conflicting theories as to whether risk-taking can be influenced by external factors. The current paper investigates the effect of entrepreneurship education and collaborative environment on financial risk-taking behavior among university-age young people. To this end, an online survey was conducted involving 510 participants and various statistical tests were utilized to test the research hypothesis. To measure financial risk-taking propensity, the Choice Dilemma Questionnaire methodology was implemented. The results of the analysis reveal that both the level of entrepreneurship education and a collaborative environment increase financial risk-taking. Moreover, multiple linear regression methodology was used to capture the significant factors that influence financial risk-taking when investing alone and investing in a collaborative environment. As a policy recommendation, the authors suggest that an entrepreneurship training curriculum should be developed that incorporates the various activities and elements of a collaborative environment.

This study investigates the potential importance of the English skills element in the context of the Indonesian IT specialist workforce. Given the apparent incongruity of Indonesian IT specialists' lack of English skills and the current rapid growth in the IT sector and the number of digital start-ups in Indonesia, a question emerges: 'Are English skills really necessary?' Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Indonesian IT specialists, companies that hire IT specialists, and a higher education institution, as well as teaching document analysis, this study explores the perceptions of IT specialists and employers in relation to the importance of English skills and investigates the supply-side role to discover whether satisfactory English courses are provided. It finds that English is not the most important skill, but that it is necessary as a supporting skill. The paper proposes a combination of English skill elements with other skill sets as meaningful to assist in creating technologies, learning new and updated technologies, and developing career trajectories in the global IT sector, especially in the current gig economy. This skill reformation concept is relevant for IT specialists' future career navigation and, as a reference, especially for the Indonesian government to design policies for a digital economy.

Disruptive technologies and services created a new paradigm that changed the way media were created, threatening traditional media organizations. Many media companies have been challenged to respond to new types of media formats, productions and channels, for which they have needed new talents with the right skills and space to experiment. This paper presents the case of the Hilversum Media Campus (HMC) in the Netherlands, a hybrid organization created by a Triple Helix cooperation to develop the new talents necessary to maintain Het Media Park as an economic regional center and for the country's media industry. This article reflects on the role of hybrid organizations as connection centers of actors, knowledge and interests; discusses the emergence of a new paradigm and its effects on the media sector; and reconstructs the history of the HMC, its conceptualization and structuring, its processes and the results achieved. In the case analysis, certain factors stood out with regard to the results achieved: the research into stakeholders' ambitions and interests, which led to a defined strategy and targeted actions; the business model construction, with parties having to contribute financially; the allocation of means, bringing energy and focus to the supported deliverables; and the autonomy of the HMC.