Abstract
The potential of academic entrepreneurship towards achieving sustainable development has been established. Likewise, sustainability is an inherent characteristic of the bioeconomy. Academics are expected to play significant roles in the successful implementation of bioeconomy through scientific research and entrepreneurship. This chapter takes academic entrepreneurship as a process that creates value from research and technology commercialisation in a bioeconomy towards achieving sustainable development in the society. The chapter employs a systematic literature review approach to identify the opportunities at the intersection of academic entrepreneurship, bioeconomy, and sustainable development. The framework of technological innovation systems (TIS) will guide this study. The chapter will conclude that the future of sustainable development in our resources-constrained planet lies in plethora of academic entrepreneurial opportunities and embracing such in the implementation of bioeconomy, an economic system that is viable for the future.
TopBackground
The combination of a changing global climate, environmental concerns, natural resource shortages, fossil resource limitation, geopolitical tensions and the need to exploit the economic opportunities inherent in biotechnological advancements has projected bioeconomy as the new economic model (Leitão, 2016; Staffas, Gustavsson, & McCormick, 2013).
Bioeconomy is a relatively new phenomenon, an alternative to our present fossil-dependent economy (Ionescu, 2013), therefore meeting the radicalness or discontinuity criterion of innovation (Driessen & Hillebrand, 2002; Oguntuase, Adu & Obayori, 2018). Bioeconomy like other emerging applications of biotechnology operates at the threshold of technological innovation (Starkbaum, Braun, & Dabrock, 2015).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Sustainable Development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Bioeconomy: The sustainable production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products for final and intermediate consumption.
Renewable: A substance capable of being replaced by natural ecological cycles.
Academic: A teaching member of an institution of higher education.
Academic Entrepreneurship: The process in which an individual or group of individuals linked through their work to an institution of higher education or research center sets up a business venture in order to commercialize the results of their research.
Entrepreneurship: The process of designing, launching and running a new business to generate a profit.
Innovation: An idea, method, process, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption.