Digital academic entrepreneurship: knowledge and public value from an Italian case study

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates the impact of digital technologies in the academic entrepreneurship by enhancing the creation of public value and engaging with stakeholders in all the stages of the entrepreneurial process. We analyse the university of Bari as a pilot case to show emerging digital technologies in the academic environment. The research question is answered through a single case study approach based on Yin’s prescriptions.The analysis consists in a single case study and includes semi-structured interviews with student representatives, the Rector, the General Director, the IT coordinator and the academic delegate for innovation. The paper is novel because describes the impact of digital technologies, as forms of knowledge, on the entrepreneurial process of a public academic institution with the creation of public value. We show how digital technologies enhance the creation of public value for the stakeholders of the University of Bari. The results of this research are relevant for academic institutions seeking to implement digitalisation processes in their ecosystem.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge management
• public universities
• academic entrepreneurship
• digital technologies
• public value creation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contribution

While the paper is the result of a joint effort by the authors, the individual contributions are as follows: Vittorio Dell’Atti wrote “Conclusions, limitations and future research”, Giuseppe Russo wrote “Introduction” and “Methodology”, Grazia Dicuonzo wrote “Literature review and research question” and Matteo Palmaccio wrote “Results” and “Discussion”.