Research has identified an extensive potential for energy efficiency within the manufacturing sector, which is responsible for a substantial share of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The purpose of this study is to enhance the knowledge of vital drivers for energy efficiency in this sector by providing a critical and systematic review of the empirical literature on drivers to energy efficiency in manufacturing firms at the firm level. The systematic literature review (SLR) is based on peer-reviewed articles published between 1998 and 2016. The findings reveal that organizational and economic drivers are, from the firms’ perspective, the most prominent stimulus for energy efficiency and that they consider policy instruments and market drivers to be less important. Secondly, firm size has a positive effect on the firms’ energy efficiency, while the literature is inconclusive considering sectorial impact. Third, the studies are mainly conducted in the US and Western European countries, despite the fact that future increase in energy demand is expected outside these regions. These findings imply a potential mismatch between energy policy-makers’ and firm mangers’ understanding of which factors are most important for achieving increased energy efficiency in manufacturing firms. Energy policies should target the stimulation of management, competence, and organizational structure in addition to the provision of economic incentives. Further understanding about which and how internal resources, organizational capabilities, and management practices impact energy efficiency in manufacturing firms is needed. Future energy efficiency scholars should advance our theoretical understanding of the relationship between energy efficiency improvements in firms, the related change processes, and the drivers that affect these processes.

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.

Purpose: Government attention to women’s entrepreneurship has increased in the past two decades; however, there are few cross-cultural studies to inform policy development. This paper aims to draw on gender and institutional theory to report on the status of female-focused small and medium-sized enterprises/entrepreneurship policies and to ask how – and to what extent – do women’s entrepreneurship policies differ among countries? Design/methodology/approach: A common methodological approach is used to identify gaps in the policy-practice nexus. Findings: The study highlights countries where policy is weak but practice is strong, and vice versa. Research limitations/implications: The study’s data were restricted to policy documents and observations of practices and initiatives on the ground. Practical implications: The findings have implications for policy makers in respect of support for women’s entrepreneurship. Recommendations for future research are advanced. Originality/value: The paper contributes to extant knowledge and understanding about entrepreneurship policy, specifically in relation to women’s entrepreneurship. It is also one of the few studies to use a common methodological approach to explore and compare women’s entrepreneurship policies in 13 countries.

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.