A stakeholder founded business model for strategic management of innovation hubs: A case of Zimbabwe universities innovation hubs

Abstract

The importance of innovation hubs and business models continues to grow yet research remains concentrated in developed countries. Although several researchers provide evidence of the importance of innovation hubs, very little of similar evidence exists in the area of business models and innovation hubs. Empirical evidence of the business model formulation for innovation hubs particularly from developing countries remains scarce. The purpose of this paper was to establish a stakeholder founded business model for the strategic management of innovation hubs in Zimbabwean universities. To achieve this, a positivist research philosophy was adopted. A survey of 120 respondents constituting heads of academic departments, final year students, and 156 entrepreneurs in the innovation hubs was used. Closed-ended questionnaire was distributed online. The data was analyzed statistically using SMARTPLS3 and PLS-SEM was conducted. Results of this study provides that communication channels, customer segments, cost structure and key partners significantly influence the stakeholder founded business model of an innovation hub. These results imply that universities must develop contextual innovation hub business models that increase the rate of commercializing innovations as well as technopreneurship activities. The study contributes to literature by extending the stakeholder founded business model and innovation hub discussion to the university environment in a developing country context. This was important because business model knowledge is contextual, as such cannot easily be transferred from one country to the other.