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The purpose of the chapter is to study peculiarities of formation of “green economy” in Russia and to substantiate the perspectives of its development by technological parks. The “green economy” is just appearing in Russia, as its volume is 4% of GDP as of now, with a downward trend for the recent 10 years. Favorable conditions for the formation of “green economy” are created in technological parks due to the attraction of the necessary volume of investments and increased state regulation. Technological park ‘Sinarsky’, West-Siberian innovational center (Tyumen technological park), and technological park of high-tech of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug show “green” initiatives. However, their share in the total structure of technological parks of Russia is only 2%. The volume of “green” investments in technological parks of Russia constitutes RUB 0.58 billion, and the volume of “green” production – RUB 9.153 billion, with 3,980 “green” jobs. The developed authors’ concept and the offered practical recommendations allow for the deeper study of the potential of technological parks in the context of the “green economy” in Russia. According to the forecast, their implementation will allow ensuring achievement of the share of “green” technological parks in their structure at the level of 30%, thus increasing the volume of “green” investments in Russia’s technological parks to RUB 7.888 billion: the volume of “green” production to RUB 124.48 billion, and the number of “green” jobs to 54,128. “Green” development of technological parks will allow increasing the volume of “green” economy in Russia by 3.2% until 2025.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model to help RTC managers in the technological and R&D decisions and bets so as to change the perceived value of the R&D projects of the centres. To achieve this aim, the paper investigates the different models for the valuation of intangible assets.

The paper presents a single case study and focusses on creating a useful IC valuation model for the centre, using existing methods and frameworks in IP and IC fields.

The paper presents a new method for the calculation of IC applied to a RTC in ICT sector, in which the valuation of the IP is included (software libraries) and the KM and the peculiarities of these kinds of organisations are explained. The model is based on Edvinsson and Malone (1997) and Leitner (2005).

Although the use of a single case provides rich data, it is also limits the generalisability to other RTCs. Another limitation is that not all existing methods were explained. This new method constitutes a first proposal for the IP and IC valuation in RTCs and further discussion and development would be carried out in the future.

The results suggest an IP and IC measurement model to improve the strategic and technological decisions making.

This paper may favour the competitiveness of companies engaged in intangible assets (knowledge, R&D) and the negotiation of the contracts since it arrives to determine a value for the intellectual property (software libraries) and intellectual capital.

This paper proposes an IC Model orientated towards an RTC context and to provide a value perspective for them. The authors are practitioners and the model is in use.

This paper aims to seek answers to the question: What are the relevant factors that allow not-for-profit innovation networks to successfully transition new technologies from proof-of-concept to commercialisation?

This question is examined using the knowledge-based view and network orchestration theory. Data are collected from 35 interviews with managers and engineers working within seven centres that comprise the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC). These centres constitute a not-for-profit innovation network where suppliers, customers and competitors collaborate to help transition new technologies across the “Valley of Death” (the gap between establishing a proof of concept and commercialisation).

Network orchestration theory suggests that a hub firm facilitates the exchange of knowledge amongst network members (knowledge mobility), to enable these members to profit from innovation (innovation appropriability). The hub firm ensures positive network growth, and also allows for the entry and exit of network members (network stability). This study of not-for-profit innovation networks suggests the role of a network orchestrator is to help ensure that intellectual property becomes a public resource that enhances the productivity of the domestic economy. The authors observed how network stability was achieved by the HVMC's seven centres employing a loosely-coupled hybrid network configuration. This configuration however ensured that new technology development teams, comprised of suppliers, customers and competitors, remained tightly-coupled to enable co-development of innovative technologies. Matching internal technical and sectoral expertise with complementary experience from network members allowed knowledge to flow across organisational boundaries and throughout the network. Matrix organisational structures and distributed decision-making authority created opportunities for knowledge integration to occur. Actively moving individuals and teams between centres also helped to diffuse knowledge to network members, while regular meetings between senior management ensured network coordination and removed resource redundancies.

The study contributes to knowledge-based theory by moving beyond existing understanding of knowledge integration in firms, and identified how knowledge is exchanged and aggregated within not-for-profit innovation networks. The findings contribute to network orchestration theory by challenging the notion that network orchestrators should enact and enforce appropriability regimes (patents, licences, copyrights) to allow members to profit from innovations. Instead, the authors find that not-for-profit innovation networks can overcome the frictions that appropriability regimes often create when exchanging knowledge during new technology development. This is achieved by pre-defining the terms of network membership/partnership and setting out clear pathways for innovation scaling, which embodies newly generated intellectual property as a public resource. The findings inform a framework that is useful for policy makers, academics and managers interested in using not-for-profit networks to transition new technologies across the Valley of Death.

Long‐standing vocational training institutions in Latin America countries are undergoing significant transformation to improve their relevance, efficiency and effectiveness in responding to the challenges of increased competitiveness, economic restructuring, technological change and evolving social demands. Based on an extensive survey conducted in 1990, reviews and analyses the recent changes and innovations taking place in such organizations, focusing on their institutional policies, strategies, programmes and services delivered. Trends show that training authorities are evolving towards: (1) emphasizing in‐service training; (2) up‐grading the level of training; (3) organizing training by economic sectors; (4) transferring training delivery to enterprises; (5) focusing on direct support to small‐scale enterprises; and (6) taking on new roles in technology transfer. national training authorities have thus managed to strengthen their linkages and legitimacy with enterprises against a background of reduced public funding and mounting pressure from enterprises to satisfy their increasing and more diverse demands.

The TUL serves as an information centre, but is in fact a network node which is part of a shared pool. In spite of the decentralization of bibliographic data files the file‐managing documentation centre is still important in maintaining the efficient utilization of available resources. Changes in the management of Scientific and Technical Information Systems and Services may be counter‐productive if policy and planning move away from the broad view; e.g. cost‐effectiveness in the narrow sense cannot always be the condition for financial support. Professional ethics, especially in the distribution of responsibilities for selection and the use of available information, should receive more attention. Vital issues are research on needs for new services and education of both user and custodian in the exploitation of available information resources. This involves an active appreciation of the ethical content, its meaning and implications for professional conduct.

Changes in market conditions and trends often point to the need for changes in the marketing approaches being used. Current market trends such as fierce competition and increasingly demanding customers bring into glaring focus the shortcomings of marketing approaches and vehicles developed in and for earlier times. Corporations are being forced to re‐examine and redefine their marketplace. The need for innovative ways of reaching the customers has never been greater. Such changes call for the development and use of newer sales and marketing tools. Call centers belong to a new breed of potent technology‐driven business tools that evolved in direct response to the changes in today’s business environment. Being rooted in a technological foundation, call centers have superior attributes. They offer more flexibility and simultaneously lower the costs of meeting customer needs. They bring businesses much closer to their customers by establishing a two‐way interactive link with the marketplace. Compared to traditional marketing approaches call centers are designed and developed for the contemporary business environment. They are an ideal tool for today’s rapidly changing global markets.

Universities, as providers of knowledge and technology, have a key role in society based on knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the technological innovation centers (TICs) of the federal universities of Minas Gerais, Brazil, verifying if federal institutions of higher education in the state are meeting the attributions outlined in the Innovation Act.

In order to achieve the proposed objective, each one of the public and federal universities in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, was outlined as analysis units. The data sources used for this study are intrinsically secondary and were collected from the websites and TICs of each university.

As a result, it was found that all universities have TICs, and are inserted into the State Intellectual Property Network. Those aspects show that the universities have been searching for structure themselves by the new entrepreneurial mission of today’s educational institutions.

As noted in the literature, more research is needed to examine the efficiency and professionalism of TICs in the entrepreneurial activity of universities because the institutionalization of TICs is still recent and many TICs are currently in an improvement phase of their activities.

In this study, entrepreneurial internationalization in renewable energy industry as a high-tech and emerging industry was explored. The focus of this study is on firm level factors to understand how and why these companies entered the international markets and what are their challenges and difficulties in this process. To answer these questions, two main streams of literature were used: international entrepreneurship (IE) and sustainable entrepreneurship.

Case study methodology is selected for this research. Because this subject is new and empirical researches in renewable energy industry are scarce, a method to gather research and in-depth data was adopted. Following suggestions by Eisenhardt (1989), a multiple-case design method was used with nine cases of entrepreneurial companies in renewable energy industry from Spain.

Results show that in renewable energy industry firms, resources and capabilities such as need for funding and rapid commercialization are key factors that encourage companies to enter the international market. However, having access to the technological knowledge cannot be a compelling reason for internationalization of renewable energy companies from Spain. Moreover, the interaction between the large and small firms is an important factor that facilitates the process of internationalization.

In this study, the focus was only on firm level factors, whereas other levels of analysis such as entrepreneur, environment, policy scheme and industrial factors need further attention in future studies. Moreover, this study is only limited to Spanish companies, and future studies can be replicated in other context.

Findings of the study have significant theoretical and empirical implications. First of all, it explains the entrepreneurial internationalization by taking advantage of sustainable entrepreneurship literature. In addition, empirical results of this study are significantly important for entrepreneurs to implement effective internationalization strategy to survive. Findings of this study can help policy makers for designing a supportive scheme for further development of this industry in the international markets.

This paper explores the entrepreneurial internationalization of renewable energy companies as an emerging industry by taking advantage of two streams of literature: international entrepreneurship and sustainable entrepreneurship. The results show the phenomenon of early internationalization in pre-commercialization phase. These findings put emphasis on interaction between large and small firms in process of internationalization in this specific industry.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence about the role of the geography on agri-food firms’ valuations. The goal is to test clusters and agglomeration effects on the SMEs valuations.

The authors propose an empirical test applying a spatial regression analysis on a sample constitute by 306 agri-food SMEs located in two municipalities with different economic characteristics: Murcia and Madrid. In addition, the authors applied the discounted cash flow model in order to estimate the SMEs’ economic value.

The findings show the importance of the geography variables on the SMEs’ performances highlights interesting differences between territories. In particular, the results confirm that the geographical proximity between agri-food firms and between them and external agents is significant on firms’ valuations. The agglomeration effects are verified in both municipality but the density variable present a negative non-linear effect confirming previous studies which indicates that the existence of a large number of firms 05 rise competition, decreasing the economic opportunities of these companies.

This study gives interesting insights to policymakers, researchers and practitioners concerning the importance of the relationships among agents, also favoured by a developed infrastructures system in a fully connected environment.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the pedagogical tools that can enhance transdisciplinarity in higher education and stimulate sustainability transitions, based on the case study of a partnership between the University of Brasilia and an ecovillage in Brazil.

A qualitative study was carried out, based on professors’ experience, students’ reports and registration data. Emergent themes were discussed based on the concepts of sustainability transitions, transdisciplinarity and active/experiential learning methods.

Undergraduate classes at the ecovillage have motivated students to work towards sustainability transitions by presenting them with new repertoires of sociotechnical configurations and social practices, by promoting a feeling of belonging and co-responsibility for the world and by a horizontal sharing of knowledge and affections that instigated reflections about their purposes in personal and professional life.

This experience demonstrates the potential of transdisciplinary pedagogical approaches to education for sustainability that promote collaboration with different stakeholders and the reflection on individual and collective motives and values – the inner dimension of sustainability.

It describes an innovative and transformative initiative in the heart of Latin America.