Universities as strategic actors in the knowledge economy

The university plays a particular set of roles in the global knowledge economy. It acts as a provider of both public and private goods in terms of education and research, as well as playing historically well-established roles in terms of applied problem solving. Also, through what has been called its public space role, the university acts as a conduit for the development of wider societal impacts linked to and coevolving with the other three roles, and facilitating integration into the wider social and innovation system (Lester and Piore, 2004; Hughes and Kitson, 2012, this issue). Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press