Persistent yet adaptive: how university science parks reconfigure intermediary roles across SME development stages and contexts

Building on an asset complementarity perspective, human capital and social capital measures are used to examine the science park location decisions of returnee entrepreneurs and the performance of their ventures. The study uses a unique, hand–collected data set of 349 SMEs from Zhongguancun Science Park in China, including 53 SMEs from locations administered by universities. The article considers the antecedents of university and nonuniversity science park location and firm growth with a view to drawing conclusions that go beyond the specific context of Beijing and China. Its findings include the tendency for returning entrepreneurs with academic knowledge in the form of patents transferred from abroad to locate in nonuniversity science parks, and for those with previous firm ownership abroad to choose university science parks. The firms of returnees with patents from abroad enjoyed stronger employment growth in nonuniversity science parks and those with commercial experience abroad with MNCs performed better in university science parks. This evidence is consistent with the view that returning entrepreneurs seek complementary (academic and commercial) assets in their location decisions, although some inconsistencies with this view are also discussed.

The planning and construction of innovative university science and technology parks are facilitated on the basis of urban planning reconstruction, and the sustainable development of our country is the main basis for the implementation of the innovation plan and future design of university science and technology parks. However, some aspects of the transformation of a city have impeded the planning and development of university science parks. In order to solve this problem, in this study, the overall planning and successful establishment of science and technology parks in well-known universities were analyzed; and “Cambridge Future” was selected as the practical example and basis for the construction of innovative university science and technology parks; and then CATIC Science City in Nanjing was used as the object of empirical analysis. In addition, the construction of these parks in universities was evaluated through the case analysis and the excellent design strategies and results, and the planning model and construction concept of these parks were proposed after the contradiction between the transition stage of cities and the design of university science parks was resolved.

The university science park is an important base for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and an important force for promoting regional economic development. There is a certain correlation between university science parks and economic development. In this paper, the author will analyze the correlation between the two, hoping to provide a corresponding theoretical basis for the construction of university science and technology industrial parks and economic development in the future.

Science Parks (SPs) are widely recognised as innovation intermediaries in University-Industry collaboration (UIC), yet how their intermediary roles are configured and reconfigured across project stages remains underexplored. This study conceptualises SPs as portfolio assemblers that select, combine, and reweight four core roles – consulting, brokering, mediating, and resource provision – throughout UIC project lifecycles. Drawing on three university-affiliated science parks in Thailand and nine collaborative research projects, we analyse 27 semi-structured interviews with researchers, firm managers, and project managers, complemented by programme documents and project reports. The findings identify nine factors integrated into a four-tier process model. Tier A (policy instruments and KPIs) anchors baseline resource provision and steers emphasis towards participation or conversion outcomes. Tier B (resources, reputation, project-manager capability) defines the feasible frontier. Tier C (partner needs, involvement, firm readiness) specifies required intermediation depth. Tier D (outcome characteristics) generates feedback shaping subsequent configurations. Role portfolios typically evolve from consulting and brokering at initiation towards mediation and resource-intensive support during validation and market entry, with reversals when capability constraints arise. The study develops a mechanism-based explanation linking instrument design, organisational capabilities, and collaboration conditions to temporal reweighting of intermediary roles.

In the literature of science park development, there is limited understanding on the evolving roles and implementation in different context. By addressing this gap, this research explores on ‘how do university science parks play active roles in regional innovation policy’. This research aims to unfold the implementation of university science park (USP) mechanisms through the lens of agency concept in peripheral region.Comparative studies between Science and Technology Park, Chiang Mai University (STeP) in the Northern region and Khon Kaen University Science Park (KKUSP), Khon Kaen University in the Northeastern region.

This paper uses the performance data on the national university science park (USP) from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of S&T, the paper empirically examines the effects of university ranking on its affiliated science parks. The results show that university ranking has positive and significant effect on USP performance, and scientific research capability play a key role. The findings imply that USP depends heavily on its mother universities. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and future research avenues are concluded.

Science and Technology Parks (STPs) facilitate the flow of knowledge and technology among universities, R&D institutions, companies and markets, and foster the creation and growth of innovation-based companies. Among the diversity of STPs, it is possible to identify two types: Science Parks (SPs), which involves university shareholding and Technology Parks (TPs), which are not owned by universities. This study will take into account just SPs due they are closely linked to the university, and they are the bridge between University and companies in the process of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT). The evaluation of the firm’s performance in SPs results in determinant to identify the needs of the companies and the feasibility of the University-Business Collaboration (UBC). Firm’s real needs also are of interest of Universities, since they face the challenge of designing strategies that best help them to transfer the knowledge more effectively. While previous studies have been focused on tenants’ innovation performance on-Park and off-Park, very little research has taken into account the Parks heterogeneity that may affect the firm’s performance. This research focuses on SPs in Spain and Mexico due to data availability. This paper (1) aims to identify the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) used by Companies co-located at SPs, and (2) explore the performance measure and critical success factors of SPs. For this study, data was collected through 71 online company surveys in Spain and 19 online company surveys in Mexico. This empirical analysis uses ten semi-structured interviews to explore (KPI’s) and success factors of SPs in both countries.

Science and technology parks (STPs) play an essential role in strengthening industry–university relationships and fostering innovation that can be considered an important mechanism to facilitate the formation and growth of knowledge-based firms. Therefore, this article investigates the effect of university STPs’ financial support, which was found to be the main barrier to innovation in the literature, on the innovation of their tenant firms. Data were collected in the summer of 2019 through interviews with ten experts and questionnaires filled by 348 firms located in university-affiliated STPs in Iran. Data were analysed quantitatively by SPSS. The findings of the research indicated that there is a positive and significant correlative relationship between the university STPs’ financial support and the innovation of firms. Although the effect of different STPs’ financial support mechanisms was in a similar range, branding facilities were more effective, particularly on marketing innovation. Eventually, to make improvements in this regard, suggestions were made to STPs, their tenant firms for conducting fruitful future research.

Partnerships between incumbents and digital technology entrepreneurs are prone to develop innovative solutions needed by the coming “new normal” society. This paper focuses on the banking sector, which is currently facing huge challenges related to open innovation and digitalization. The qualitative approach adopted is based on observations and interviews involving actors from a given ecosystem: Luxembourg. The objective of this article is to explore the roles of innovation intermediaries in the capability development of incumbent firms’ to establish new collaborations with innovative digital technology startups. We employ the dynamic capabilities framework to tackle this issue. Our findings show the crucial complementary roles of both external and internal innovation intermediaries in enabling digital technology partnerships and developing incumbents’ relational capabilities. This paper contributes to knowledge in the field of strategic management by showing how traditional, highly structured organizations such as banks can regenerate their dynamic capabilities by being strongly engaged in their open innovation ecosystem and connected to a variety of actors from their ecosystem, especially open innovation intermediaries. For policy makers, this research suggests the deployment of means to empower these key interfaces to act in favor of their ecosystems.

This paper examines the role of university science parks in fostering interorganizational technology transfers and technological development. We first try to contrast the development of science parks with the theoretical and empirical findings from scholarly work in the area of the management of technology. This theoretical context allows us to interpret and to discuss empirical data collected from Belgian and Dutch science park firms. The data collection mainly focused on the interactions of park‐based firms with their external R&D environment. This analysis leads to two important findings: (1) the level of R&D activity at the tenants is rather moderate for most of the parks studied, and (2) the tension between ‘regionalism’ and ‘internationalism’ in contemporary R&D management.In the wake of this second finding, arguments are presented to complement and even to change the focus from the ‘miniature’ R&D network which might develop on university science parks toward the ‘R&D community’ network holding together researchers working on a particular, interrelated set of scientific and technological problems wherever they may be located around the globe. Moreover, it is argued that a unified theory on the emergence and the development of new technologies is badly needed. Only if the dynamics underlying the development of a new technology are unravelled and better understood can technology policies, such as the ones involving the creation of science parks, be targeted more effectively.

This study aims to examine the effect of national-level university science parks on university research productivity and quality in China. The actions and intentions of different individuals have driven each participating department to achieve varying degrees of development. Using the Triple Helix Theory to analyze university-industry government interactions, a Difference-in-Differences model was used to evaluate the causal relationship between science park participation and university research outcomes. The analysis provided new evidence on the impact of economic policies on the research capabilities of universities. Analysis indicated that: (a) National-level university science parks significantly promoted the growth of research projects and academic publications in universities. (b) Geographically, their influence in eastern China was more pronounced on research output and paper publications. (c) Disciplinary analysis indicated a stronger effect on increasing paper publications in science and engineering universities. (e) Personnels’ perceived behavioral control anticipated negative emotions, and sense of community all have direct positive effects on innovative intentions. Personnels' innovative intentions have a direct positive effect on their innovative behaviors. Personnels' age, education level, and monthly income have heterogeneous effects on innovative behaviors. By analyzing the conclusion, this study provides new empirical evidence for the practical applications of the Triple Helix Theory, highlighting the strategic role of science parks and individuals in fostering academic research. Policy recommendations are offered to optimize university-industry collaboration and enhance research performance.

Innovation intermediaries have become numerous and diverse. Faced with this growing heterogeneity, there is the need to advance understanding of the organisations that engage in innovation intermediation activities. To do so, we use a combination of text mining and bibliometric techniques, and we identify seven different streams of literature, six of which refer to distinct types of intermediaries that perform specific functions and often involve specific types of organisations. Looking at the evolution of the different streams of literature over time, we find that the early contributions focused on university incubators, science and technology parks, and the role they play within different types of innovation systems. More recently, the focus has shifted to the role of intermediaries in supporting sustainable transitions. Despite the differences between the various types of intermediaries and the literature streams that analyse them, the bibliographic coupling shows that all strands of literature have a common theoretical basis, which includes the open innovation approach and revolves around the role of science parks and incubators.

At present, the scientific literacy of Chinese citizens is still at a low level, and it is still a long way to go for the nation to improve its science popularization capability. University science and technology park is a gathering place and transformation hub for its scientific and technological achievements, which is crucial for promoting the national career of science communication. This paper starts from the definition of science popularization capability of university science and technology park. The study illustrates the basic functions of science popularization capability construction of university science and technology park in three aspects: speeding up the transformation university scientific and technological achievements; improving the quality of innovative and entrepreneurial talents cultivation; promoting the scientific literacy of university and local area citizens. The essay also puts forward the ultimate goal for the science popularization capacity construction of university science and technology park. It analyzes its key influential factors on science popularization capability construction: science popularization environment; the popularization ability on science and technology resources; communication skills and operation on science popularization jobs. At last, the paper constructs the evaluation system of science popularization ability of university science and technology park.

This article is based on 93 valid resident questionnaires and 203 valid enterprise questionnaires. At the same time, through interviews with multiple companies, we learned that there are still few commercial buildings in the Z City University Science Park in Jiangsu Province. The facilities system is imperfect, and the living and entertainment needs of residents and enterprise staff cannot be fully met. Through analysis, this article believes that the above problems occur because the positioning of the science and technology park is limited to manufacturing, the geographical location is remote, and Jiangsu Province Z city's economic development still has more room for improvement. To this end, by introducing the concept of sharing economy and based on an in-depth investigation and analysis of the public space planning and utilization status of the park, this paper proposes that the Z City Science Park in Jiangsu Province should develop and construct commercial land and increase buses in the future planning. Suggestions such as transportation schedules and additional routes to the science and technology park, cultural facilities or areas such as entertainment or public services, etc., to increase the space utilization and economic benefits of the science and technology park.

The prospect for the future growth and prosperity of university science and technology parks (STPs) in the United States is questionable. Evidence is presented in this chapter that might lead one to conclude that if STPs are to remain viable, they must reidentify themselves especially in the eyes of their stakeholders. Absent that, critical resources might not be forthcoming to deal with current infrastructure issues as well as their ability to attract new tenants in to the park.