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The effective management of industry/university research linkages has always been a challenge — for both partners. Moreover, a greater understanding is required for the role that these partners can play in developing strong linkages between them, particularly through mechanisms such as liaison offices and technology parks. This paper will examine the role of such mechanisms for the case of Greece. Basing on interviews with individuals in technology transfer process between academia and industry, it will examine the role and function of Academic Liaison Offices and Technology Transfer Units. Moreover, the development of effective strategies which is a matter for serious concern will be proposed in order to bridge the gap between them. Finally, the addressed model, such as a combined bridge linking both partners is to promote the liaison between the two and to overcome the traditional university structures which have not been designed for technology transfer purposes but for research and education only.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the mechanisms through which Chinese National Science Parks' (NSPs) services facilitate returnee entrepreneurs' (REs) acquisition of resources for their new ventures. Resource acquisition is crucial for new ventures, but it inevitably leads to significant costs increase. Although the NSPs offer various services to REs to reduce these costs, they still struggle to find the right mix of services.

From the transaction cost's perspective, an exploratory multiple-case study was conducted with data collected from six NSPs in China.

The results reveal that four types of NSP services (mentoring and training, social event, promotion of REs and accreditation of resource holders (RHs)) have both individual and joint effects on reducing REs' resource acquisition costs. Specifically, the “accreditation of RHs” service directly helps REs reduce search costs. The combination of “accreditation of RHs”, “promotion of REs” and “social event” services help REs and RHs to establish guanxi. Further, guanxi, working along with the “mentoring and training” service, helps REs to reduce contracting, monitoring and enforcement costs.

This study is among the first to explore the matching mechanisms between science parks’ services and entrepreneurs' cost reduction. This helps reconcile the inconsistent findings on science parks' effect by explaining why some NSPs are able to provide strong support to REs while others are less successful. In addition, the findings are useful for NSPs to develop the right mix of tailored services for REs. Finally, REs will find this study useful to evaluate which NSP is a more suitable location for their new ventures.

New technology‐based ventures (NTBVs) gain access to beneficial social capital through their affiliation with technology incubators, organizations created to facilitate learning leading to the successful development of nascent firms. Scillitoe and Chakrabarti (2005, 2) identified three sources of beneficial social capital within human networks, “historical ties, organizational facilitation, and trustbased shared pursuit of common goals”, with organizational facilitation identified as the primary source of beneficial social capital for ventures within technology incubators. The current study extends this prior research investigating the development of social capital of NTBVs through incubator facilitation, focusing on the influence of female founders. Results are based on surveys collected from fifty‐four technology‐based firms affiliated with technology incubators in the United States and Finland. The results from this exploratory study show that the speed of technological learning is negatively affected by the interpersonal network access in firms with female founding management team members. Technological learning includes acquiring knowledge of legal protection of intellectual property, complex technological and scientific knowledge, and design and production skills that enable the development and commercialization of NTBV products and services (Deeds, DeCarolis, and Coombs, 1999). This finding contradicts prior research that suggests technological development of ventures is positively influenced by interpersonal network access through incubators (Hansen, Chesbrough, Nohria, and Sull 2000; Scillitoe and Chakrabarti 2005). Implications for technology incubator managers, NTBV founders, and economic development agencies that support technology incubators are discussed.

New business ideas, especially those which address markets that do not yet exist, face huge difficulties in securing vital resources. Hence, governments support the creation of a protected environment, business incubators, in which these early ventures can develop. Business incubators perform two different processes: servicing the companies they host and fulfilling their main stakeholders' demands. Hence, this paper is critical of whether business incubators in Lithuania have been installed due to real economic demand to help all the promising startups to develop or if they serve primarily political goals. Business incubators are exposed to pressure from shareholders, both public and private, and adopt certain strategies to deal with their expectations. The paper aims to explore how the management of business incubators understand their own position, tasks and challenges and how they see their business incubators performing now and in the future.

This paper adds viewpoints from the sociology‐based institutional theory, adopting a more critical view on how institutions emerge, how they are influenced by their environment and how they shape the environment in which they operate. In‐depth interviews were conducted with the management of the business incubators. The paper included all seven business incubators of Lithuania: five business incubators in Vilnius and two business incubators in Kaunas.

The studied Lithuanian business incubators have a strong focus on property, together with the offering of training and consulting, although at a very superficial level. There are strong arguments in favor of a mimicking process and institutional behavior. What made these property developments so attractive was the available public money, particularly from the European Union. As long as the money keeps flowing, there is a strong incentive to grow. The managers say that their public shareholders provide only weak support after the business incubator was set up. Their private investors, on the other hand, are interested in high rents. In addition, teams operating the business incubators are small, most consisting of not more than three people; a much lower number than the European average of 12.

The empirical results offer interesting insights into the self‐understanding of the management of Lithuanian business incubators, their setup and the environment in which they operate.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the drivers of new incubators’ business model. Several researchers have agreed that incubation is related to the early phase of a venture’s life and identified the incubators as organizations that support start-ups. But only recently has a new generation of incubators emerged.

Using an Italian incubator case study, the research results are mainly ascribable to the ability of the incubator to facilitate not only internal networking, but also external networking.

As described in the findings, the business model of the service incubator is founded on value-added services among networking within incubatees as well as between start-ups and external actors. The service incubator becomes a knowledge intermediary that allows new ventures to identify innovation parties and transform them into innovation partners.

The paper investigates the new business model of incubator founded on external networking orientation. Even if some researches analyzed incubators and cooperation within incubatees, less attention has been focussed on external networking and collaboration among incubators, incubatees, and several stakeholders. Based on such collaboration, incubatees can undertake new entrepreneurial measures, explore new markets, and innovate constantly.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of Technology Providers, Public Administrations and R&D Institutions on Cloud Computing adoption. This research also considers Killer Applications and Success Cases as other environmental factors.

Factorial analyses and structural equation models were used on a sample of high-technology firms located in technological parks in Southern Europe, with more than ten employees and sustained investments in R&D.

Results show that Technology Providers and Success Cases are determinant in Cloud Computing adoption. Moreover, Killer Applications are a forerunner for Success Cases.

An appropriate fit between the tools and resources provided by suppliers and the internal resources of the company is needed to create competitive advantages. Firms should evaluate Technology Providers, identify Success Cases to Cloud Computing adoption and implement technological benchmarking.

This study contributes to Cloud Computing adoption literature because it includes Technology Providers, Public Administrations and R&D Institutions simultaneously as well as other variables as Killer Applications and Success Cases. The importance of the external agents on information technology (IT) adoption, especially when the technologies to be adopted are new and in an emergent stage, together with the lack of prior investigations focusing on specific environmental factors affecting the adoption of these new, emerging IT, justify the value of this research.

The paper aims to explore the knowledge management and innovative outputs (IO) of university-based technology business incubators funded by the Department of Science and Technology in the Philippines.

The respondents, which include heads, managers, coordinators, and staff,were reached out via email using a database. The instrument was generally adopted from various related studies in the literature. Data were analyzed quantitively using partial least squares – structural equations modeling.

The main findings reveal that the mediated relationship between potential absorptive capacity (PACAP), realized absorptive capacity (RACAP) and IO explained 38.7% of the variance both predicted by PACAP and mainly explained by RACAP. Among new organizational antecedents measured, slack resources and willingness to cannibalize did not predict PACAP, while tolerance for failure and external openness predicted PACAP. Consequently, PACAP and RACAP positively mediated the relationship between significant organizational antecedents and IO.

The validation of the positive and significant link of absorptive capacity (ACAP) and innovation with an emphasis on the Philippine context. The study pointed out the unidimensionality of PACAP and RACAP as a single ACAP variable and not two separate constructs.

The purpose of this study is to investigate contemporary changes in the education system. In particular, an analysis of the mechanisms of coordination and communication involved in the process can show how different geographical factors with different relational mechanisms may contribute to the creation of a new academic entrepreneurship.

The authors propose a methodology with two-step approach. In the first part of the paper, they use a theoretical approach to carry out a longitudinal study of academic literature on the topics of “entrepreneurial university,” “academic entrepreneurship” and “spin-off organizations.” In the second part, they use cross-database analysis to theorize the main aspects of recent developments in higher education in Italy. To this end, the authors use three public and open-access databases on spin-offs, universities and higher education institutions and incubators in Italy.

First, issues relating to the formation and best practices of entrepreneurial universities are discussed, based on the works of researchers from 25 countries. Second, a hypothesis is put forward to suggest that the organizational model of entrepreneurial university affects microeconomic competitiveness. Third, a case study of Italian spin-off organizations suggests that the number of incubators and spin-offs, and the type of academic knowledge, all directly affect the entrepreneurial university.

This paper aims to examine the role of the university in the modern economic system. The originality of this investigation lies in its ability to offer a picture and first analysis of the main actors and of the entrepreneurial university system.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the interface organizations of a regional innovation system on the dynamics of knowledge transfer between universities and firms.

The Triple Helix approach is used as a heuristic tool. The paper is based on a face-to-face survey to a sample of 800 innovative firms in Andalusia (Spain). The analysis focusses on the effectiveness attributed by the firms to technology transfer offices (TTOs), science parks and the regional innovation agency.

Different organizations have different roles in the relationships that firms maintain with universities in a regional innovation system. Firm’s positive perceptions of TTOs, science parks and the innovation agency in the promotion of knowledge transfer are associated to the kind of relationships maintained with universities.

The research focusses on the region of Andalusia. Further studies could consider the applicability of the findings in other regional innovation systems.

The paper helps governments and managers of TTOs, science parks and innovation agencies to understand the real use that interface organizations have for the industrial tissue of a regional innovation system.

There have been few studies that observe together the value attributed by firms to the several interface organizations in a specific innovation system. The analysis contributes to the debate on the adjustment of the different roles of interface organizations in the promotion of knowledge transfer and innovation dynamics.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key external factors that are impacting on the performance of Chinese entrepreneurial enterprise (EE).

A linear regression model was developed that comprised three types of organisations(government, university and R&D institute, agency, financial institution) and three kinds of environmental factors(legal and institutional environment, culture, geographic location) which greatly influence Chinese venture enterprises growth. The model was validated using 91 responses obtained through a questionnaire survey carried out in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Fujian Province of China.

Evidence suggests that a fine relationship with a financial organisation positively impacts on the growth of EEs and a close relationship with government shows a disadvantageous impact on the EE's growth. The significant influence of environmental factors appeared to come from entrepreneurial culture and atmosphere.

The findings suggest that Chinese EEs need more favorable financial support. And they also need to have more entrepreneurial learning in a good entrepreneurial culture and atmosphere. Chinese governmental departments should adjust their strategy and means to motivate EEs, not only to give them favourable policy and support but also to improve their competitive power.

The paper highlights the external factors which can significantly affect the growth of Chinese EEs and is, therefore, of practical use for Chinese EEs and support agencies in China. The analysis also offers a more comprehensive understanding about Chinese EEs' development context.