Thesis

Simulating academic entrepreneurship and inter-organisational collaboration in university ecosystems, a hybrid system dynamics agent-based simulation

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2020
Thesis identifier
  • T15616
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • Universities are increasingly expected to actively contribute to socio-economic development. Academic entrepreneurship and the evolution of the entrepreneurialuniversity within ecosystems have received increasing attention from both policymakers and academic communities over the last decades. However, most studieson universities’ external engagement have focused on individual activities andsingle universities, hereby neglecting the feedback effects between different activities and how universities are linked through an overlap of their ecosystems.The result is an incomplete understanding of how universities interact with theirecosystem and the resulting inter- and intra-organisational dynamics. This research addresses this issue by developing a hybrid system dynamics agent-basedmodel, which captures feedback structure and the internal decision-making ofuniversities and companies. Both the conceptual and simulation model are basedon a triangulation of the literature, interviews with representatives of Scottishuniversities, and secondary data for Scottish universities and UK businesses.This research makes several theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions. From a theoretical perspective, it contributes in two distinct waysto the field of entrepreneurship by defining university ecosystems in new waythat provides a basis for future research and developing a multi-modal simulationmodel that can be applied in tested in different contexts. The methodologicalcontributions to the field of modelling and simulation in management scienceinclude a modelling process for hybrid simulations, new practices for modellingthe size of agent populations through different designs of stocks and flows in thesystem dynamics module in hybrid simulations, and complex events for recognising emergent behaviour. Lastly, this research makes two empirical contributionsto the field of entrepreneurship. This research shines a light on the dynamicsof academic entrepreneurship and how universities can partially overcome a lowresearch prestige to increase academic entrepreneurship. Implications for policy and practice are outlined and opportunities for future research conclude thisthesis.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Howick, Susan
  • MacKenzie, Niall
Resource Type
Note
  • Previously held under moratorium from 28th October 2024 until 28th October 2025.
DOI
Date Created
  • 2020
Former identifier
  • 9912935093502996

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