Purpose: The commercialization of research produced by universities constitutes a core facet of academic entrepreneurship (AE). Academic literature reveals the need to shed light on entrepreneurial processes in higher education institutions (HEIs). This study intends to fill this gap by researching the mechanisms for facilitating AE and the variables that can moderate the relationship between such mechanisms and AE in Portuguese HEIs.Design/methodology/approach: Our research model aims to assess the mechanisms of academic entrepreneurship (AE) within a sample of 125 Portuguese public higher education institutions (HEIs). To test our research hypotheses, we employed a structural equation model (SEM) using the partial least squares (PLS) method. Additionally, our evaluation examines the potential moderating effects of incubator programs, support initiatives, and proof-of-concept programs (PoCs). Our research model seeks to evaluate the mechanisms for facilitating AE and explore the effects of including incubator programs, support initiatives, and PoCs as moderators. The seven variables (Research mobilization, Unconventionality, Industry collaboration, University policies, Incubator programs and support initiatives, Proof-of-concept programs, and academic entrepreneurship) were measured using a 7-point Likert scale.Findings: The results revealed that different drivers of AE influence the creation and development of entrepreneurial activities. Our findings also show the moderating effects of incubator programs, support initiatives, and proof-of-concept programs on AE. We find that incubator programs, other support initiatives, and PoCs maintain a moderating effect on AE and benefit their respective HEIs.Research limitations/implications: The study examines only the Portuguese HEI context. Therefore, generalizing these results necessitates reservations. However, the responses came from various actors in HEIs, from different academic backgrounds and research interests. This makes the results more generalizable. Limitations are evident in external validity, given that we gathered the data over a relatively short period.Practical implications: Observed factors are explored to gain a deeper understanding of their influence on the mechanisms of AE. The implications arise from the new perspective presented and the methodology used to identify mechanisms capable of fostering AE. We hope this research will encourage other researchers to study this topic further.Social implications: the engagement of universities at the global level should be emphasised in future policy. While universities in innovation systems often have a local focus, their engagement in innovation ecosystems transcends the boundaries of geographic locations.Originality/value: PoCs had a significant positive moderating effect on the impact of research mobilization and university policies on AE. Thus, we find interactions between universities and industry boost AE. This study demonstrates how AE benefits HEIs by extending orientation towards mobilizing research, unconventional approaches, cooperation with industry, and university policy implementation. We thus advocate a new approach, demonstrating the influence that the mobility of research, unconventionality, industry collaboration, and university policies hold over AE.

Nautical tourism stands out for its potential to achieve social-economic development in coastal and island destinations and as a lever for sustainable tourism. However, the lack of a clear definition of nautical tourism at the international level makes it difficult to characterize it, and the case of Portugal is no exception. In fact, despite the enormous potential of Portuguese nautical tourism, there is a lack of studies that characterize this type of tourism in the Portuguese tourism destination. This paper intends to make a first attempt to fill this gap by assessing the projected destination image of Portuguese nautical tourism with a sustainable marketing approach. In the design of the research, the content analysis methodology was applied. The data were collected from the official websites of the Portuguese legislation and the Portuguese nautical tourism players and analyzed through a theoretical model of sustainable marketing deriving from the literature review. The results provide the sustainable projected destination image of Portuguese nautical tourism and identify the main trends in the legislative framework, tourism activities, networks of players, and support infrastructures for Portuguese nautical tourism. The findings provide practical and useful insights for Portuguese nautical tourism stakeholders aiming to improve a sustainable projected destination image, as well as for researchers identifying research gaps in the nautical tourism topics. This study also provides a new methodological contribution, proposing a theoretical model of the projected destination image of nautical tourism with an approach to sustainable marketing, which can be applied to other nautical tourism destinations.

This research aims to analyze the degree of importance of investment and expenditure on innovation activities for innovation capacity, in the scope of Portuguese services firms. The literature review considers three main approaches regarding service innovation: Assimilation, demarcation and synthesis. A conceptual model was proposed and several research hypotheses were empirically tested using secondary data, belonging to the 4th CIS 4, supervised by EUROSTAT. A data set from 1306 services firms was studied. The method used was the logistic regression model. According to the results obtained, the greater the financial investment in acquisition of machinery, equipment and software, in internal research and development, in acquisition of external knowledge, in marketing activities and other procedures, the greater the propensity for firms to innovate in terms of services. This study highlights the contributions that innovation activities can provide in what regards the development of innovation process, giving special emphasis to their service innovation.

This research considers the factors that contribute to venture creation, through the use of innovation networks, within state-owned higher education institutions (HEIs) in Portugal. The paper reviews the literature on current approaches to firm creation through models of innovation networks and analyses data collected through a questionnaire completed by 255 nascent entrepreneurs who, at one level or another, had attended HEIs with the specific purpose of developing their entrepreneurial skills. The data was submitted to factor analysis and a logistic regression model. The results show that the cooperation and development of relationships with other agents in the innovation network is the main route by which HEIs stimulate firm creation.

Recognition of the potential of film tourism was manifested by deepening knowledge of this market, given the cultural and tourist dynamics developed, but also through the creation of new tourism products specific to this sector. Film tourism, that is, the tourist activity associated with cinema and television, has been of increasing interest for the promotion of territories. In contemporary times, the interconnections between tourism, space, and media have generated interest, recognizing the occurrence of a distinct type of behaviour, activity, and tourist experience associated with this tourist segment that, through creativity, is manifested in academic entrepreneurship. The parameters of film tourism are multidimensional, generating territorial impacts, but also opportunities and challenges associated with the management and marketing of tourist destinations. Film tourism must be looked at, not only from a demand perspective but also from a supply perspective. This is because cinematographic tourism developed from opportunities generated by cinema understood in this study as an agent that induces travel to cultural and tourist destinations. In this study, carried out geographically in the centre of Portugal, the aim is to present a case study related to cinematographic tourism through the mapping of filming and scenarios where film scenes were recorded in heritage resources, in their relationship with the enhancement of cultural and tourist experience. The main objectives of this study include an approach to film tourism as a factor of entrepreneurship in the territory and verifying the importance of film scenarios in heritage resources as factors of attractiveness and cultural and tourist enjoyment. To achieve both objectives, a quantitative analysis was carried out on residents of a territory where film scenes were recorded. The conclusions identify that the recording of filmic scenes encourages interest in heritage and cultural spaces, with a greater dynamization of these spaces for tourist appropriation and, in turn, the incentive to the creative process and territorial entrepreneurship.