Abstract
This chapter considers the role of universities in stimulating social innovation, and in particular the issue that despite possessing substantive knowledge that might be useful for stimulating social innovation, universities to date have not been widely engaged in social innovation activities in the context of Quadruple Helix developmental models. We explain this in terms of the institutional logics of engaged universities, in which entrepreneurial logics have emerged in recent decades, that frame the desirable forms of university-society engagement in terms of the economic benefits they bring. We ask whether institutional logics could explain this resistance of universities to social innovation. Drawing on two case studies of universities sincerely committed to supporting social innovation, we chart the effects of institutional logics on university-supported social innovation. We observe that there is a “missing middle” between enthusiastic managers and engaged professors, in which four factors serve to undermine social innovation activities becoming strategically important to HEIs. We conclude by noting that this missing middle also serves to segment the operation of Quadruple Helix relationships, thereby undermining university contributions to societal development more generally.
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https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_3389 accessed 1 December 2019
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Acknowledgments
This paper draws on work supported by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie action grant agreement No. 722295, the RUNIN Project. This work was also financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under Project PTDC/EGE-OGE/31635/2017. Any errors or omissions remain the authors’ responsibility.
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Benneworth, P., Cunha, J., Cinar, R. (2020). Between Good Intentions and Enthusiastic Professors: The Missing Middle of University Social Innovation Structures in the Quadruple Helix. In: Farinha, L., Santos, D., Ferreira, J., Ranga, M. (eds) Regional Helix Ecosystems and Sustainable Growth. Studies on Entrepreneurship, Structural Change and Industrial Dynamics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47697-7_3
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