Abstract
Innovation is a key driver to address the challenges of sustainability. To achieve this goal, the various entities participating in the innovation process must work together to ensure that research methodologies and results are aligned with the needs and expectations of society. Having a conceptual and practical approach that allows exploring and measuring how projects are fulfilling this expectation is key in this process. In this sense, this study aims to explore the relevance of this phenomenon for the development of innovation practices and to characterize and compare several responsible innovation assessment tools (RIATs) that can be used by research teams. A qualitative methodology is used to identify, map, and compare the characteristics of each RIAT. The main strengths and limitations of each approach are also explored. The findings reveal a total of 18 RIATs and 16 dimensions. The challenge is to get a harmonious balance between these various dimensions and to have this analysis performed in the early stages of each project. This study makes practical contributions by identifying areas that each project must assess and ensure for its innovation activities to be socially desirable and ethically acceptable. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Abstract
Social entrepreneurship is currently a field of research that has attracted increasing attention from various sectors of society mainly due to the difficulty of the various governments to respond to social needs. Higher education cannot remain indifferent to this challenge and must provide training programs specifically aimed at social entrepreneurship. This study intends to find out the dimensions that characterize the process of teaching social entrepreneurship in higher education and analyze the relevance of these dimensions for increasing entrepreneurial intention. This study considers a sample of 177 students and adopts a quantitative methodology based on descriptive and correlational parametric and nonparametric statistical methods. The results indicate that individual and organizational factors appear to be more integrated in the social entrepreneurship process than contextual factors. However, the social component is the only factor that shows a moderate correlation with entrepreneurial intention. The other dimensions of the model in isolation have a low and not significant correlation. Nevertheless, the contextual construct is not favorable for the emergence of new social entrepreneurship projects. The results of this study are relevant for higher education institutions to design social entrepreneurship programs in which the social component is an integral part of these programs, through outreach programs with local communities that can help identify socially relevant causes. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Abstract
Micro-companies play an extremely important role in the economy being the main driver of economic growth. They contribute decisively for employability, business innovation and in reducing social asymmetries. This role of micro-companies in particular and, small and medium enterprises in general, is widely recognised in the literature. Nevertheless, the number of longitudinal studies that explicitly address the contribution of micro-companies to the European economy is reduced, and most of them are essentially reports produced by European and national agencies that analyse the importance of this phenomenon in their economies. This study intends to characterise the birth, death and survival rate of micro-companies in the European Union. The study adopts a quantitative and statistical approach in data analysis between 2008 and 2016, which allows us to characterise the evolution of these indicators and to understand which countries have the best and the worst performances. Copyright © 2024 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Abstract
The aim of this study is to test the multidimensional construct of the Entrepreneurial University (EU), and therefore to confirm whether EU factors make a positive contribution to regional competitiveness. Data were collected from ten Portuguese Public Universities (PPUs) through a self-administered questionnaire. First- and second-order confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed through factor and multiple linear regression analyses. The main findings show that EU related factors-perceived and combined with actual regional metrics-especially entrepreneurial supporting measures, positively contributed to regional competitiveness. This study shows policy makers that universities are not merely cost centres but provide knowledge spillovers that can have a positive influence on regional competitiveness.

Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the evolution, roots and influence of the rural entrepreneurship literature.Design/methodology/approachUsing a bibliometric exercise, the analysis starts with investigation of studies on entrepreneurship and gathering all (772) articles on rural entrepreneurship (from 1981 to 2020) found in both Scopus and Web of Science up to 15 August 2020. Citation analysis of the references/citations of 755 articles are listed in the abstract database, generating a citation database involving 46,432 references/citations. This paper considers 635 (out of the 772) articles on rural entrepreneurship (i.e. articles cited in one or more studies), generating a database of 10,767 studies influenced by the rural entrepreneurship literature.Findings This study discovers that the relative importance of rural entrepreneurship within the entrepreneurship literature has increased in the last few years, but rural entrepreneurship remains a European concern; the most frequently addressed topics include growth and development, institutional frameworks and governance and rurality, with theory building being rather understudied. Most of the studies on rural entrepreneurship are empirical, involving mainly qualitative analyses and targeting high income countries; rural entrepreneurship is rooted in the fields of economics and entrepreneurship and is relatively self-referential.Originality/value This study provides a comprehensive and updated investigation of evolution of the rural entrepreneurship literature. The assessment of the literature's scientific roots of rural entrepreneurship had not yet been tackled before. To the best of the author's knowledge this study can be considered as the first effort for identifying the scientific influence of the rural entrepreneurship literature.

Abstract
The literature on the economics of location regarding creative activities is relatively scarce. Estimations, based on 369 newly created firms operating in creative industries in Portugal, which incorporate spatial effects of neighbouring regions in the location choices, yield the following results: (i) the concentration of creative and knowledge-based activities play an important role in location decisions of new creative establishments; (ii) creative firms tend to favour a diversified industrial tissue and related variety, in order to enjoy from inter-sectorial synergies; (iii) high education at a regional level has a highly significant, positive effect on location decisions, while lower educational levels of human capital negatively affect those decisions; (iv) tolerant/open environments attract creative activities; (v) creative firms tend to favour municipalities where the stock of knowledge and conditions for innovative activity are higher; (vi) municipality's attributes are more important in terms of firms' location decisions than the characteristics of nearby regions.