Looking inside the determinants and the effects of entrepreneurial innovation projects in an emerging economy

ABSTRACT

Ongoing research agendas regarding the intersection between entrepreneurship and innovation in academia still demand analysis about the antecedents/consequences of enterprise-university collaborations. On the one hand, little is known about how enterprise-university collaborations manage their resources/capabilities to develop entrepreneurial innovation projects, as well as how do enterprises-university collaborations capture economic benefits. On the other hand, regarding the context, there is also a gap concerning the effect of institutional voids on entrepreneurship/innovation strategies in emerging economies. This paper analyses the determinants and the consequences of entrepreneurial innovation projects within enterprise-university collaborations in an emerging economy. By using a sample of 514 Mexican enterprises, our proposed framework offers insights into the remarkable effect in the transformation of enterprises-universities’ capabilities and state funds into the generation of economic value from entrepreneurial innovation projects. This paper contributes to the thought-provoking discussion about a future research agenda and implications for triple-helix actors in emerging economies.

KEYWORDS:

• Enterprise-university collaborations
• entrepreneurial innovations
• institutional economics
• triple-helix
• dynamic capabilities

JEL:

• L26
• I23
• A23

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ The higher education organisations, the government and the enterprises across industries have been critical participants in the configuration of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems (McMullen and Dimov 2013; Autio et al. 2014; Paleari, Donina, and Meoli 2015; Acs et al. 2017; Colombo, Meoli, and Vismara 2019; Urbano et al. 2019).

² For further information about the methodological issues, please consult CIDE and SEP(2010).

³ In Mexico, the Economic Census is collected every five years. For this reason, the most updated and available information used for calculating the sample was the Economic Census of 2004.

⁴ The SIEM primarily comprises data of Mexican companies. The Law of Business Chambers regulates it, its Confederations provide the legal framework, and the Ministry of Economy defines the rules of operation annually.

Additional information

Funding

David Urbano acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy & Competitiveness [Project ECO2017-87885-P], the Economy & Knowledge Department—Catalan Government [project 2017-SGR-1056] and ICREA under the ICREA Academia Programme.