Internationalizing university innovation ecosystems for sustainable entrepreneurship and green digital transformation

Abstract

The accelerating convergence of multiple global crises, climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and widening socio-economic inequality, has precipitated an urgent need for a fundamental restructuring of our economic and technological systems. Within this imperative, two interconnected paradigms have risen to prominence: sustainable entrepreneurship, which seeks to create market-based solutions that deliver environmental and social value alongside financial return, and green digital transformation (GDT), the systemic deployment of digital technologies to radically enhance ecological sustainability and circularity. Universities, as the primary loci of foundational knowledge generation, human capital formation, and pre-commercial innovation, are inherently critical actors in this transition. However, their capacity to drive meaningful, large-scale change is intrinsically limited by the scope and connectivity of their innovation ecosystems. Traditionally, these ecosystems have been circumscribed by national borders, regional policies, and local industry partnerships, a model ill-suited for challenges that are planetary in scale and systemic in nature. This paper posits that a deliberate and strategic process of internationalizing university innovation ecosystems (IUES) is not merely beneficial but essential to unlocking their full potential as engines for sustainable entrepreneurship and green digital transformation. Internationalization here is conceptualized not as a simple add-on of international student recruitment or research agreements, but as a deep, structural, and systemic re-engineering of the ecosystem itself to become globally networked, porous, and dynamically responsive to transnational flows of knowledge, talent, capital, and technology. This abstract elaborates a comprehensive framework for IUES, examining its theoretical underpinnings,multi-modal drivers, core operational pillars, synergistic relationship with GDT, significant challenges, and principles for responsible implementation.