Student entrepreneurship has become an increasingly important topic for academics and practitioners alike. A major reason for that is the recognition that startups by students and recent university graduates have been found to be much more frequent than spin-offs by their faculty, and not of lower quality (Åstebro, Bazzazian & Braguinsky, 2012). According to the “Triple Helix” model (Etzkowitz et al., 2000) universities play a critical role in regional innovation systems and student’s entrepreneurial activities are found to be responsible of regional competitiveness (Guerrero et al., 2016). Jönköping University’s (JU) Solar Car Project (SCP) aims at fostering student entrepreneurship in an innovative pedagogical context. JU-SCP is a unique real-life and cross-functional collaborative educational project involving instructors and students from various Schools within JU (School of Engineering, International Business School, School of Education and Communication) as well as stakeholders from the wider community (e.g. industry and public sector organizations). The project provides the participating student with in-depth knowledge and skills in automotive engineering, entrepreneurship, marketing and project management as well as sustainability thinking, by combining theory with an innovative activity-based learning approach. Mastering JU-SCP requires the student to run and develop the entrepreneurial venture JU Solar Team (JUST) – the fundamental identity behind the SCP. Its core activity consists of: (i) constructing a competitive solar-powered electric car; (ii) venture marketing and finance; and (iii) planning and participating in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2019. The presentation describes the SCP/JUST and its major outputs, with a particular focus on innovative pedagogy.

In times of rapid technological change and increasing global competition, the brand constitutes one of the few resources to ensure sustainable competitive advantage (Lindemann, 2003). An important brand attribute companies need to build and communicate to consumers is brand authenticity. The technological and economic dynamics of our modern times can have destabilizing social consequences, particularly during the uncertainty caused by economic or political crises – which robs individuals of their need for stability and continuity. In these times, the human desire for authenticity may be especially strong (Turner & Manning, 1988). But what drives the authenticity of a brand? Recent research has identified brand heritage, that is, a company’s active use of its past and legacy, as beneficial for achieving competitive advantage (Urde, Greyser, & Balmer, 2007; Balmer, 2009). 

Despite a growing demand worldwide, organic food remains a niche category, with consumers only purchasing it some of the time. This study examines the mediating effects of consumers’ perceived clarity of organic food-related communication, trust for, and perceived health benefits of organic foods in the relationship between controlled and uncontrolled communication stimuli and organic food purchases. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 1011 Australian organic food consumers using Structural Equation Modeling. We find that all mediators except perceived communication clarity perform as hypothesized, with the latter not mediating the relationship between uncontrolled communications and perceived health benefits of organic foods. The results suggest that marketers should ensure clarity in controlled organic food communications, signal health benefits of organic food and build consumer trust to generate organic purchases.

Purpose Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, the purpose of this study is to investigate mediating effects of controlled and uncontrolled communications of corporate brand perceptions on consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 271 Australian automobile consumers. Findings The authors find that while consumer satisfaction is indirectly influenced by corporate-level attributes via controlled and uncontrolled communication, the authors did not find an indirect effect between consumer benefits on consumer satisfaction via controlled and uncontrolled communication. By contrast, the authors find highly significant indirect effects - via controlled and uncontrolled communication as well as consumer satisfaction - for the relationship between, on the one hand, corporate-level attributes and consumer benefits and consumer brand loyalty on the other. Uncontrolled communication was significantly associated with consumer loyalty, a relevant finding that indicates an importance of tracking media coverage and maintaining favorable relationships with the media.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between individuals’ regional institutional embeddedness and their entrepreneurial behavior. We particularly shed light on how this type of embeddedness influences the intention-behavior link among entrepreneurs, applying the Theory of Planned Behavior: While entrepreneurial intentions constitute the base of the entrepreneurial process, they do not necessarily translate into entrepreneurial action, that is, starting a new venture. We investigate whether the strength of the relationship between individual entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial behavior is moderated by the regional social capital context in which individuals operate. Our results suggest that the intention-behavior link is weakened by regional hierarchy values, and strengthened by regional cultural diversity, regional density of associational activity, and the prevalence of regional interpersonal trust. The empirical evidence signals that regional policymakers should invest resources to develop a regional social capital infrastructure conducive to entrepreneurial behavior.

This article examines the moderating role of regional social capital in the intention-behaviour link in entrepreneurship. We investigate to what extent the regional social capital context in which aspiring entrepreneurs are embedded strengthens or weakens the translation of individual entrepreneurial intentions into new venture creation activities. Our results suggest that the intention-behaviour link is weakened by cognitive regional social capital in the form of regional hierarchy values and strengthened by structural regional capital in the form of regional cultural diversity and regional breadth of associational activity, as well as by relational regional social capital in the form of high levels of regional generalised trust. Our findings suggest that to support new venture creation activity, there is a need to grow regional social capital via the enhancement of social trust, associational activities and regional cultural diversity - and at the same time decrease hierarchical social structures within regions.

This paper provides novel empirical insights into the Porter hypothesis (PH) and its dynamic nature. The PH posits that well-designed environmental regulations induce eco-innovations at polluting firms that improve both their environmental and business performance via 'innovation offsets.' We conduct an econometric test of this proposition, using Swedish pulp and paper plants as empirical application. Swedish environmental regulation of polluting industries provides an interesting case because it has been praised, due to containing elements of 'well-designed' regulations, for being conducive to accomplishing the 'win-win' situation of mutual environmental and economic benefits. The empirical results indicate that flexible and dynamic command-and-control regulation and economic incentive instruments have induced innovation offsets through improved energy efficiency. Our study bears important implications: empirical tests of the PH that do not account for its dynamic nature, and that do not measure 'well-designed' regulations, might provide misleading conclusions as to its validity.

Using recent data on a cross-section of Swedish chemical and pulp and paper firms, this paper provides novel empirical insights into the Porter hypothesis. Well-designed environmental regulation can stimulate firms’ innovative capabilities, while at the same time generating innovation offsets that may both offset net compliance costs and yield a competitive edge over those firms that are not affected by such regulations. In doing so, we also test the alleged effectiveness of regulatory time strategies in stimulating innovation activities of regulated firms. We find evidence for the effectiveness of such well-designed regulations: announced rather than existing regulation induces innovation and some innovation offsets. Our results imply that empirical tests of the Porter hypothesis that do not account for its dynamic nature, and that do not measure well-designed regulations, might provide misleading conclusions as to its validity.