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Knowledge intensive entrepreneurship and smart specialization in the maritime cluster: Innovation strategies for sustainable development.

Research project
Active research
Project size
660 000
Project period
2021 - ongoing
Project owner
Unit for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Department of Economy and Society

Financier
Adlerbertska Research Foundation

Short description

The aim is to enrich the theory and practice of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) and how it contributes specifically to the future fulfillment of sustainable development goals. The research will address different strategic possibilities for the KIE firms and for policy actors to enhance smart specialization and sustainability-related outcomes. This is done by conducting qualitative interviews with new and emerging firms in the West Swedish Maritime Cluster, as well as with policy actors and multinational corporations active in this area.

The project will apply an inductive approach to the data gathering process in order to take into account new insights from the cases that can inform the theory on smart specialization, knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurship, and sustainable development. Specifically, this is proposed to explore how innovations from startups in this area, as well as the effectiveness of the ecosystem surrounding them, enable fulfillment of sustainability goals.