Purpose – This study proposes to use the Theory of Planned Behaviour to predict entrepreneurial intentions among students in five developing and nine developed countries. The purpose is to investigate whether entrepreneurial intention and its antecedents differ between developing and developed countries, and to test the theory in the two groups of countries. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 2,225 students in 13 countries participated in this study by responding to a structured questionnaire in classrooms. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. Findings – The findings indicate that respondents from developing countries have stronger entrepreneurial intentions than those from developed countries. Moreover, the respondents from developing countries also score higher on the theory's antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions – attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control – than respondents from developed countries. The findings support the Theory of Planned Behaviour in both developing and developed countries. Research limitations/implications – The findings strongly support the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The measure of subjective norms used, a multiple-item index encompassing the views of other people and motivation to comply with these, seems to have advantages over other measures of this concept. Practical implications – Developing countries need to focus on the development of institutions that can support entrepreneurial efforts. At the same time, developed economies may need to accept that entrepreneurial intentions are dependent on the dynamism of an economic environment and possibly on risk-perceiving behaviours. Originality/value – While multiple-country studies on entrepreneurship in developing and developed countries have been called for, no previous study has compared entrepreneurial intentions between developing and developed countries. The inclusion of developing countries provides a unique quasi-experimental setting in which to test the theory.

This paper contributes to the sustainability debate by analyzing the inclusion dimension in the responsible research and innovation (RRI) process. RRI is claimed to be an important tool for addressing global challenges and achieving sustainable development goals. While stakeholder involvement is considered to be imperative for the RRI process, there is little empirical evidence on (1) who the stakeholders participating in the RRI process are; (2) when stakeholders participate; (3) how stakeholders’ inclusion contributes to the sustainable innovation process; and (4) who the agents are who orchestrate stakeholders’ inclusion. This paper addresses the issue of stakeholder involvement through the lens of innovation management literature by attempting to link the innovation process to the responsibility concept. We employed a meta-synthesis of empirical studies of RRI to develop a deep understanding of stakeholder inclusion. After screening 139 articles, we identified seven empirical papers highlighting RRI process, mainly from projects nested in academic contexts. The findings indicate that multiple stakeholders are included at a late stage of the innovation process—during the market launch. To some extent, this allows for the adaptation of the solution, but such adaptations are limited in nature. This study also identifies the agents who stimulate stakeholder inclusion as being mainly academic researchers and researchers linked to multi-institutional projects. Our findings indicate that innovation management thinking is rarely applied in the governance of research and innovation projects ‘born’ in academia. We suggest enhancing RRI theoretical development by incorporating elements of innovation management such as early inclusion of users in the innovation process. For practitioners, this means an extension of the design space to allow early stakeholder inclusion in the innovation process to ensure responsible outcomes. We also identified avenues for future research. There is a need to systematically investigate which tools and frameworks for deliberate stakeholder inclusion are relevant at the various stages of the innovation and development process.

Employees’ work-related well-being has become one of the most significant interests of researchers and organizations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines how job characteristics such as mental load and team support, and technology-related factors such as perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and technology acceptance, impact employees’ work engagement as a dimension of work well-being. Data were collected through a sample of 610 academic employees from three Norwegian universities after COVID-19 restrictions were implemented. The structural model estimation showed that mental load, perceived team support, and technology acceptance were significantly related to work engagement. It also showed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and mental load were significantly related to technology acceptance. Furthermore, the analysis showed that technology acceptance partially mediates the relationship between job characteristics and work engagement, and fully mediates the relationship between technology-related perceptions and work engagement. Building on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study provides insights into the effects of job-related and technology-related factors on remote workers’ well-being. By doing so, we contribute to the existing literature by demonstrating how remote working with the use of newly implemented technologies can be related to employees’ well-being during a pandemic.

While innovation should be about socioeconomic transformation of society, concerns have been raised about its negative externalities including growing disparities within and between regions. Arguably, Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) offers a potential solution to address these concerns. However, in theory, its conceptualization and operationalization remain ambiguous. Further, in practice, this makes its application to regional development difficult. Accordingly, this study first conducts a systematic literature review of conceptual papers on RRI. It identifies themes and categorizes them into four domains: drivers, tools, outcomes and barriers. Second, these domains are applied to regional innovation studies. The paper contributes to an increased understanding of RRI and its applications to sustainable regional development as well as how RRI and regional innovation studies can benefit from each other.

Purpose: How university context (UC) enhances students’ entrepreneurial intentions and opportunity recognition is an emerging topic. It is known that students learn, not only from educational programmes, but also from the context in which they are embedded. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of such context on student’s entrepreneurial intentions and opportunity recognition.Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a three-dimensional institutional framework to describe UC including regulative, normative and cognitive structures. Regulative structures refer to rules and regulations, support initiatives in relation to entrepreneurship; normative structures include shared values and norms; while cognitive structures apply to knowledge among students and faculty. A heterogeneous sample of 196 respondents from five countries was used to create reliable measures of UC and to test the hypotheses with the help of regression analysis.Findings: The findings indicate that two dimensions of UC in particular (regulative and normative) were shown to be of great importance in increasing entrepreneurial intentions and opportunity recognition among students.Originality/value: The study contributes to this further by suggesting a reliable and theory-grounded scale of UC. Furthermore, this study adds to the discussion on entrepreneurship education by proving evidence of the importance of UC on entrepreneurial intentions. The important contribution is acknowledgement of the fact that social systems both constrain and enable entrepreneurs in their discovery, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities. The authors have established that “would-be student entrepreneurs” do not exist separately from their structural context. Attempts to understand them outside of this context cannot, therefore, fully capture their nature.

Responsible innovation (RI) has received increased attention from policymakers and academics as a solution to grand challenges and is viewed as the main driver for innovation. The United Nations has suggested 17 Sustainable Development Goals and responsible innovation can be seen as a tool that allows the movement of society towards reducing inequality, coping with environmental challenges and sustaining countries’ economic and societal development. Our knowledge of how businesses act responsibly in solving these challenges is scarce. An inductive analysis of 14 e-health startups in Norway, shows that responsibility is highly prevalent. Entrepreneurs have instant contact with users (patients or healthcare professionals), which increases inclusiveness, anticipation and reflection as the main elements of responsibility. However, firms’ contextual and strategic awareness of responsibility remains low, which means an absence of focused strategies to exercise responsibility. Consequently, entrepreneurial startups are prevented from reaching broader stakeholders and fully reflecting the knowledge obtained. Moreover, RI activities are often bundled with other activities on the “path” to successful commercialization. This paper contributes to and enriches the current RI understanding from a firm perspective and suggests some implications for practitioners as well as policymakers to enhance sustainable development in the healthcare sector.