IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jknowl/v15y2024i4d10.1007_s13132-024-01890-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Addressing Wicked Problems (SDGs) Through Community Colleges: Leveraging Entrepreneurial Leadership for Economic Development Post-COVID

Author

Listed:
  • Samantha Bryant Steidle

    (Radford University)

  • Christopher Glass

    (Boston College)

  • Macie Rice

    (Radford University)

  • Dale A Henderson

    (Radford University)

Abstract

This qualitative case study aims to explore community colleges’ role in addressing wicked problems of economic development post-COVID through entrepreneurial leadership. The key research question is, “How do entrepreneurial leaders describe the role of community colleges in addressing wicked problems of economic development post-COVID.” The study interviewed 28 entrepreneurial leaders regarding the role(s) of community colleges in addressing wicked problems of economic development. The study addresses a critical gap in the literature. Researchers have yet to explore the role of associate degree-granting institutions, namely community colleges. Notably, the over 1200 U.S. community colleges serve nearly 12 million or half of America’s students (American Association of Community Colleges, 2011). From a theoretical perspective, the study leverages complexity science, complex adaptive systems, and systemic innovation to address wicked problems of economic development. Future researchers can build on these theoretical insights for future studies across many disciplines. The results provide ten key roles community colleges can potentially take on as economic development partners, making them ideal institutions to serve as incubators of post-COVID recovery. They include revitalizing communities post-COVID, performing post-COVID business triage, modeling sustainability, creating jobs, championing entrepreneurship-led economic development, increasing tax revenue, pipelining talent, supporting talent retention, supporting main street businesses, and reducing entrepreneurial risks. Researchers recommend that policymakers and other funders allocate funding to help community colleges address wicked problems through systemic innovation labs (I-Labs). Interestingly, the roles identified appear to be moderated by proximity and trust.

Suggested Citation

  • Samantha Bryant Steidle & Christopher Glass & Macie Rice & Dale A Henderson, 2024. "Addressing Wicked Problems (SDGs) Through Community Colleges: Leveraging Entrepreneurial Leadership for Economic Development Post-COVID," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(4), pages 18832-18857, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:15:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s13132-024-01890-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s13132-024-01890-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-024-01890-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13132-024-01890-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Graeme Auld & Steven Bernstein & Benjamin Cashore & Kelly Levin, 2021. "Managing pandemics as super wicked problems: lessons from, and for, COVID-19 and the climate crisis," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(4), pages 707-728, December.
    2. Edward Morrison & John D. Barrett & Janyce B. Fadden, 2019. "Shoals Shift Project: an ecosystem transformation success story," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(3), pages 339-358, September.
    3. Mena, Sébastien & Palazzo, Guido, 2012. "Input and Output Legitimacy of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 527-556, July.
    4. Maija Renko & Ayman El tarabishy & Alan L. Carsrud & Malin Brännback, 2015. "Understanding and Measuring Entrepreneurial Leadership Style," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(1), pages 54-74, January.
    5. Gregory Trencher & Masaru Yarime & Kes B. McCormick & Christopher N. H. Doll & Steven B. Kraines, 2014. "Beyond the third mission: Exploring the emerging university function of co-creation for sustainability," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(2), pages 151-179.
    6. Sandra S. Batie, 2008. "Wicked Problems and Applied Economics," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1176-1191.
    7. Schouten, Greetje & Glasbergen, Pieter, 2011. "Creating legitimacy in global private governance: The case of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1891-1899, September.
    8. James A. Cunningham & Matthias Menter & Katharine Wirsching, 2019. "Entrepreneurial ecosystem governance: a principal investigator-centered governance framework," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 545-562, February.
    9. Sonia Ben Slimane & Régis Coeurderoy & Hatem Mhenni, 2022. "Digital transformation of small and medium enterprises: a systematic literature review and an integrative framework," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(2), pages 96-120, April.
    10. James A. Cunningham & Paul O’Reilly & Brendan Dolan & Conor O’Kane & Vincent Mangematin, 2016. "Publicly funded principal investigators allocation of time for public sector entrepreneurship activities," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 43(4), pages 383-408, December.
    11. Alan Fowler & Kees Biekart, 2017. "Multi‐Stakeholder Initiatives for Sustainable Development Goals: The Importance of Interlocutors," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(2), pages 81-93, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Domenico Dentoni & Verena Bitzer & Greetje Schouten, 2018. "Harnessing Wicked Problems in Multi-stakeholder Partnerships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 333-356, June.
    2. Mikkel Kruuse & Kasper Reming Tangbæk & Kristjan Jespersen & Caleb Gallemore, 2019. "Navigating Input and Output Legitimacy in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: Institutional Stewards at Work," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-27, November.
    3. Inge Stupak & Jamie Joudrey & C. Tattersall Smith & Luc Pelkmans & Helena Chum & Annette Cowie & Oskar Englund & Chun Sheng Goh & Martin Junginger, 2016. "A global survey of stakeholder views and experiences for systems needed to effectively and efficiently govern sustainability of bioenergy," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 89-118, January.
    4. O'Kane, Conor & Mangematin, Vincent & Zhang, Jing A. & Cunningham, James A., 2020. "How university-based principal investigators shape a hybrid role identity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    5. María José Foncubierta-Rodríguez & Fernando Martín-Alcázar & José Luis Perea-Vicente, 2023. "A typology of principal investigators based on their human capital: an exploratory analysis," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 932-954, June.
    6. Hospes, Otto & Valk, Olga van der & Mheen-Sluijer, Jennie van der, 2012. "Parallel Development of Five Partnerships to Promote Sustainable Soy in Brazil: Solution or Part of Wicked Problems?," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 15(B), pages 1-24, December.
    7. Dina Kusnezowa & Jan Vang, 2021. "Creating Legitimacy in the ISO/CEN Standard for Sustainable and Traceable Cocoa: An Exploratory Case Study Integrating Normative and Empirical Legitimacy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-21, November.
    8. Verena Bitzer & Alessia Marazzi, 2021. "Southern sustainability initiatives in agricultural value chains: a question of enhanced inclusiveness? The case of Trustea in India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(2), pages 381-395, June.
    9. Bitzer, Verena, 2012. "Partnering for Change in Chains: the Capacity of Partnerships to Promote Sustainable Change in Global Agrifood Chains," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 15(B), pages 1-25, December.
    10. Jespersen, Kristjan & Grabs, Janina & Gallemore, Caleb, 2024. "Ratcheting up private standards by exploiting coopetition: The curious case of RSPO’s adoption of zero-deforestation criteria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    11. Schouten, Greetje & Glasbergen, Pieter, 2012. "Private Multi-stakeholder Governance in the Agricultural Market Place: An Analysis of Legitimization Processes of the Roundtables on Sustainable Palm Oil and Responsible Soy," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 15(B), pages 1-26, December.
    12. Heidingsfelder, Jens, 2019. "Private sustainability governance in the making – A case study analysis of the fragmentation of sustainability governance for the gold sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Eusebius Pantja Pramudya & Lukas Rumboko Wibowo & Fitri Nurfatriani & Iman Kasiman Nawireja & Dewi Ratna Kurniasari & Sakti Hutabarat & Yohanes Berenika Kadarusman & Ananda Oemi Iswardhani & Rukaiyah , 2022. "Incentives for Palm Oil Smallholders in Mandatory Certification in Indonesia," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-28, April.
    14. Thomas Maak & Nicola M. Pless & Christian Voegtlin, 2016. "Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the Micro-Foundations of Political CSR," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 463-493, May.
    15. Gesa Pflitsch & Verena Radinger-Peer, 2018. "Developing Boundary-Spanning Capacity for Regional Sustainability Transitions—A Comparative Case Study of the Universities of Augsburg (Germany) and Linz (Austria)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-26, March.
    16. Valérie Eijrond & Liesbeth Claassen & Joke van der Giessen & Danielle Timmermans, 2019. "Intensive Livestock Farming and Residential Health: Experts’ Views," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-16, September.
    17. Robson Mekonnin Shiferaw & Zerihun Ayenew Birbirsa & Shimels Zewdie Werke, 2023. "Entrepreneurial leadership, learning organization and organizational culture relationship: a systematic literature review," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, December.
    18. Paul A. Hindsley & O. Ashton Morgan, 2020. "The Role of Cultural Worldviews in Willingness to Pay for Environmental Policy," Working Papers 20-03, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    19. Vivek Pandey & Natalia Vidal & Rajat Panwar & Lubna Nafees, 2019. "Characterization of Sustainability Leaders and Laggards in the Global Food Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-14, September.
    20. repec:osf:socarx:n9dhz_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Sharifah R.S. DAWOOD, 2023. "The Use Of Quadruple Helix Model In Smart Cities Development: Evidence From Bandar Cassia Township In Penang, Malaysia," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 18(2), pages 78-100, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:15:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s13132-024-01890-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.