This book discusses the importance of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in supporting regional competitiveness. It also encourages academics, business professionals and policy-makers to rethink innovation ecosystems as drivers of regional competitiveness, demonstrating the complex interactions between regional economic and social actors, and their impact on regional competitiveness. Further, the book examines the role of entrepreneurship and innovation policies in different regions (e.g. lagging regions, rural regions, etc.), and describes critical success factors in multi-level technologies and innovation policies and strategies.

This book discusses the main issues, challenges, opportunities, and trends involving the interactions between academia, industry, government and society. Specifically, it aims to explore how these interactions enhance the ways in which companies deliver products and services in order to achieve sustainable competitiveness in the marketplace. Sustainable competitiveness has been widely discussed by academics and practitioners, considering the importance of protecting the environment while sustaining the economic goals of organizations. The Quintuple Helix innovation model is a framework for facilitating knowledge, innovation and sustainable competitive advantage. It embeds the Triple and the Quadruple Helix models by adding a fifth helix, the “natural environment.” The Triple Helix model focuses on the university-industry-government triad, while the Quadruple adds civil society (the media- and culture-driven public) as a fourth helix. The Quintuple Helix model facilitates research, public policy, and practical application of sustainable competitiveness principles. Applying the most recent developments and theoretical insights of this model, the contributors to this volume address such questions as: how do government, academia, industry and civil society actors interact for promoting sustainable competitiveness at the country (regional) level? How do these actors influence sustainable operations management at the company (business) level? In so doing, they shed new light on the dynamics of economic growth, sustainability and competitiveness.

This volume presents theoretical and empirical research on universities and their entrepreneurial ecosystems to better grasp the connections between universities and their surrounding environments and their engagement with sustainability. The book provides a better understanding of the entrepreneurial characteristics of universities. It examines the ways in which universities’ collaboration and participation in an ecosystem support business and industry transformation. It also investigates how universities function within the university/industry/government/third sector relationship nexus. The book enables the systematisation of the literature while simultaneously builds theory, empirically testing existing theories, and contributes towards a future research agenda geared towards sustainability. The book gathers contributions from varied geographical contexts providing an international perspective.

Offering a comprehensive classification of the analytical approaches to the social within the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship studies, this book showcases a wide variety of perspectives and a collection of theoretical analysis tackling social complexity.

Public Sector Strategy explores how strategic decisions are developed and implemented in the public sector, and examines the psychology underpinning strategic decision-making. Combining knowledge from traditional perspectives with contemporary insights on strategic management, this book considers how managers make their decisions and provides key concepts and practical tools to aid delivery of strategy within highly institutionalised settings. This book provides theoretical grounding, real-life global cases, and practical examples of strategic decisions in an international public-sector context by working through the underpinnings of strategy, the influencing factors of strategic decision-making, strategic implementation, and strategic tools in practice. It should be a core textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying public sector strategy and strategic management more broadly. It will also be of benefit for public sector managers, consultants, and private sector organisations who wish to interact with the public sector.

Digitalization, Sustainable Development, and Industry 5.0 offers cutting-edge multidisciplinary research, with expert insights on the technologies and strategies businesses use in the twin transition process.

As the global economy continues to evolve, the idea of sustainability has become a prevalent area of concentration. Businesses are searching for more environmentally and socially conscious practices as the market distances itself from the industrial age. Implementing sustainable initiatives starts with entrepreneurs, as these individuals are the foundation for creating and building profitable societies. Understanding the practice of sustainable entrepreneurship is pivotal in predicting future trends in business and the economy. Building an Entrepreneurial and Sustainable Society provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of sustainability within entrepreneurship and its applications in modern socioeconomics. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as public policies, internationalization, and social innovation, this book is ideally designed for entrepreneurs, business specialists, professionals, researchers, managers, economists, educators, scholars, and students seeking current research on the evolution of sustainable entrepreneurship and its contextual factors.

Clusters and Sustainable Regional Development conceptualises the role of organised clusters in the transition towards sustainability. It introduces a novel perspective on these clusters, viewing them as deliberate collective actors within their environments that can become the driving force for transformation in their regions or nations. The book draws upon the meta-organisational perspective in cluster studies, in contrast to traditional approaches. This view suggests that clusters are not merely territories or geographical areas, but organised entities. As such, they are defined as territorially anchored groups of independent organisations engaging in joint decision-making, pursuing system-level goals and capable of purposive collective action. This text introduces a new set of ideas and questions at the intersection of economic geography, regional and cluster studies, organisation and management, policy and governance research. It will appeal to researchers from these diverse fields seeking to further develop the meta-organisational view of clusters as well as conceptualise their role in sustainability transitions. This book will also be a useful guide for policymakers who have an interest in the dynamics of economic development and the transition towards sustainability.