Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore trust initiation and development in collaborations between universities and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the implications for enabling engaged scholarship (ES). Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative inductive...

Purpose – Society now expects the universities it funds to work with citizens and communities to enable them to flourish in sustainable ways. One particular aspect of this concerns support for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) which, more than ever, need universities to help them cost...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main factors affecting researcher engagement in knowledge transfer exchanges (KTE) in an Open Innovation (OI) context, devoting special attention to specific factors such as personal and professional profile, institutional variables,...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and impact of higher education institution (HEI) in a distributed, open innovation system using a survey of some 600 firms in the UK. Design/methodology/approach – Primary data are used from a postal questionnaire survey of 600...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the use of a multidisciplinary lens, the policy context and the scope for improvements in university‐based public programmes focused on improving innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach – The...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of understanding of the social processes involved in business engagement and understanding of the role of knowledge transfer practitioners. It is also to provide the first outlines of a theoretical framework of business...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address social network theory from the perspective of design research and propose a new conceptual approach to understanding and developing social networks. These ideas are embodied in a new strategic tool to help companies appreciate, proactively...