Innovation Ecosystem in Higher Education Towards Sustainable Development

Introduction

In contemporary Society 5.0, it is interesting to observe that the roles of higher education are changing at an alarming rate given the existence of various developments like globalization, massification, and internationalization of universities. It appears that universities are expected to be at the center of socio-economic transformation through participation and involvement in innovation ecosystems when it comes to sustainable development discourse. According to Bester et al. (2020), the innovation ecosystem is considered to be a powerful tool for stimulating economic growth, productivity and enhancing livelihoods since these components are critical for sustainable development. With this in mind, there is a growing consensus that higher education plays a catalyst role for sustainable development in Society 5.0. In other words, higher education is expected to be the engine that drives all forms of innovations worldwide that are required to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This will undoubtedly lead to knowledge transfer so as to derive social, economic, and environmental benefits. In this sense, Cai (2017) documented that Society 5.0 demands innovation in higher education which calls for renewed roles of higher education in society in an attempt to address the SDGs.

In light of the above, the changing roles of higher education institutions have been noted in the 21^st century. The institutions of higher education are now widely recognized as the key trust-building institutions among the innovation ecosystem actors (Cai et al., 2020; Thomas et al., 2021). Given the interactions of different actors in an innovation ecosystem, trust in knowledge exchange can not be undermined. This implies that universities are expected to be at the center of knowledge transfer in an innovation ecosystem. Moreover, institutions of higher education like universities are now assuming another new role of an institutional entrepreneur in the ecosystem not merely an entrepreneurial university (Cai et al., 2020). According to Battilana et al. (2009), an institutional entrepreneur is an organization that not only initiates various changes without being actively involved in the execution of such changes. As such, it is expected that universities must be institutional entrepreneurs in an innovation ecosystem.

From an African perspective, the universities in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria are top-ranked when it comes to participation in innovation ecosystems. Notably, the chief building blocks of innovation ecosystems in Africa are technology, capital, and talent. In this regard, Cape Town in South Africa is considered to be one of the most robust innovation ecosystems owing to the fact that it has high-quality universities, start-ups, and investors (Cenfri, 2020). More interestingly, Cape Town hosts three of the top-ranked universities (Times Higher Education, 2023), and it is characterized by highly qualified graduates from abroad. In Kenya, Nairobi has many educated and tech-savvy people with high-level digital skills (Carboni et al., 2020). Moreover, Nairobi is the center for co-working spaces, accelerators, incubators, and innovation hubs. The university linkages with the industry are more witnessed in Nairobi whereby Strathmore University iLab offers cybersecurity and digital skills to employees of multi-national organizations (Cenfri, 2020). In Nigeria, Lagos is the center for innovation ecosystems.