**1. Introduction**

During the last two decades, diverse university models have emerged into the new social and economic landscape [1,2]. Extant literature has provided insights about the entrepreneurial and innovative transformation pathways of universities [3–7]. Concretely, the transformation pathways have been associated with internal conditions like university governance/leadership, financial autonomy through diversified sources of funding [3], the organizational culture [4], and the university's resources and capabilities [6,7], as well as external conditions such as the influence of public policies on the configuration of the transit in a country [5] and the stakeholders' influence [6,7]. This accumulation of knowledge about innovative and entrepreneurial universities has legitimized the social, economic, and technological contributions in economies in places such as Australia, Europe, North America, and the United Kingdom [6–10]. However, the experience of entrepreneurial and innovative universities

from developed economies is not necessarily applicable in the case of universities located in socialist or emerging economies [11]. By contrasting with developed economies, Cuba has particularities based on the construction and sustainability of socialism. The premise is the centralized allocation of resources and vertical orientation in the design of public policies. Although the socialism premise is maintained, its current open strategy demands new institutional conditions to transiting into new ownership forms, as well as the configuration of the pillars of an innovative entrepreneurship ecosystem (i.e., banking reforms, the Science/Technology regulatory frameworks, and the entrepreneurial mindset). At the university level, entrepreneurship is not allowed. It explains the misunderstanding of entrepreneurship in the academic context, as well as the inexistence of actions to foster graduate and academic entrepreneurship.

A few studies have provided insights into the innovative and entrepreneurial role of universities located in socialist economies [10,12–15], as well as proposing frameworks to understand the link of the university into the national innovation system [16,17]. These studies provide insights about a third mission that is understood as the extension of social university functions and the knowledge transfer to society. Moreover, anecdotal evidence has evidenced some insights into new business models, as well as some insights on the involvement of the productive sectors' competitiveness and social wellbeing [18]. However, little is known about how we may conceptually understand the social, entrepreneurial, and innovative transformation process of universities in socialist economies. Concretely, how have universities located in socialist economies have been transforming themselves into social, innovative, and entrepreneurial organizations? How have university managers transitioned into innovative business models? How have universities located in socialist economies been impacting on the regional innovation system? How effective have the pro-market state regulations been?

Inspired by the research opportunities, this paper provides a better understanding of the entrepreneurial and innovative transition of universities located in socialist economies. By adopting the theoretical bases of entrepreneurial universities [4,6], social entrepreneurship [19], and business model innovation literature [20,21], we propose a conceptual model to analyze the transition of socialist universities into a social, innovative, and entrepreneurial organization. By using the retrospective case study methodology [22,23], we explore the entrepreneurial and innovative identity of Cuban universities by its transition of traditional business models into new business model innovation. Our findings show insights about the multiple challenges, determinants and the transition of Cuban universities.

Our research setting is the Cuban university. According to the Cuban Constitution [24], the university has been a non-profit public organization with an economic dependency on public funding given their social goal: to provide free and high-quality education to Cubans. After the 1990s economic crisis, the Cuban State redefined the national policies and higher education legislation to reinforce the relationship between the university and the productive sector [25]. At this stage, technology and innovation were priorities for improving the socio-economic situation faced by the productive sector through enhancing its collaboration with universities. This action was oriented towards the generation of economic and social impacts via the university in pursuit of the country's growth [24]. Several incentives and intermediaries (i.e., the technology transfer offices) were implemented to enhance the generation, management, and commercialization of technology [18]. Afterwards, due to the need for updating the Cuban economic model in 2016, the Cuban State established new economic and social policies [25,26]. At the higher education level, Article 14 prioritized the link between organizations that developed productive activities and universities that guarantee their technological and innovative transformation [26] (p.8), and Article 22 prioritized the generation of qualified human capital accordingly to the needs of the new economic and social model [26] (p.10). Concretely, these articles guarantied the proactive role of universities into the country's social, cultural, and economic development.

After this introduction, the paper is structured as follows. The second section analyzes the theoretical foundations linking entrepreneurial universities and business innovation models. The third section describes the case study methodology adopted in this research. The fourth section presents the findings and discusses them considering previous studies. The paper concludes with the conclusions, implications, and research agenda.

#### **2. Theoretical Foundations**

Internal

Resources

Capabilities

Inputs

Outputs

### *2.1. Understanding the Entrepreneurial and Innovative Identity of Universities*

Despite the lack of consensus, an entrepreneurial and innovative university is generally understood as a natural incubator that provides an adequate environment to support the entrepreneurial and innovative initiatives developed for the university community (i.e., students, academics, staff, alumni) [6–8,10]. The adequate environment has been configured by conditions that foster entrepreneurship and innovation [1]. Based on the accumulation of knowledge regarding this phenomenon, Table 1 summarizes the determinants, the inputs, and the outputs of universities with an entrepreneurial and innovative identity.


Mentors supporting entrepreneurship and innovations

entrepreneurship ecosystems

Leadership Positioning in the radar Networks and alliances

Research Publications Transference Patents, licenses, spin-offs

Business model Multiple income streams

Teaching Job seekers and entrepreneurs

Incentives and reward systems

Technology and innovation resources

A strong relationship with agents involved in the regional innovation and

Exploration/exploitation of entrepreneurial and innovative opportunities

**Table 1.** Key elements behind the entrepreneurial and innovative identity of universities. Source: Authors.

Regarding the external conditions, Guerrero et al. [2] evidenced the role of universities as a key participant and contributor within the regional innovation systems. In this vein, by adopting the endogenous growth theory, Guerrero, Cunningham and Urbano [8] proposed a conceptual framework to understand the economic contribution of universities in society. Concretely, the universities' core activities have been associated with the economic production function. Consequently, teaching has been linked to the human capital factor; research has been related to knowledge capital; and transference has been related to technological and entrepreneurial capital [10]. Therefore, university managers should adapt to the university role based on the stakeholders' requirements in terms of qualified human capital, knowledge, and new technological advances [27].

Regarding the internal conditions, Clark [4] proposed the internal pathways for the entrepreneurial and innovative transition of universities. However, many of these pathways have evidenced in universities located in the context of advanced economies such as North American Universities [3], European Universities [6,7,11,27], and Asian universities [28–30]. Therefore, these pathways do not necessarily apply in the context of emerging or socialist economies. The plausible explanation is the existence of institutional voids, as well as the specific realities and needs demanded by these economies [9,11]. For instance, one of the most relevant pathways has been the diversified sources of funding motivated by the reduction of public resources [4]. Therefore, innovative and entrepreneurial

universities should look for sustainable sources of funding [10]. In this vein, university managers should look for new alternatives to capture value from the university' resources and capabilities efficiently [31].

The main inputs and outputs of entrepreneurial and innovative universities are aligned to their core activities [6,8,10]. In this assumption, the entrepreneurial and innovative university should adapt its business model for responding to the new demands of the stakeholders and global context [21]. The main challenges are aligned with the organizational culture, the attitudes towards entrepreneurship and innovation, and the (in)formal relationships with stakeholders [2,28,32]. For instance, the transformation process has been motivated by the fostering of entrepreneurial initiatives through spin-offs/start-ups and technology-based ventures [10]; as well as innovative initiatives through the transference of knowledge or technologies to the productive sectors via licenses, patents, inventions, and intellectual property rights [1].
