Recently, university-based innovation hubs have gained momentum in the entrepreneurship discourse but have been implemented at a slow pace in African economies. As such, the purpose of this study is to examine the role of university-based innovation hubs in fostering entrepreneurship from a design thinking standpoint.
In line with the tenets of constructivism philosophy, exploratory research design was employed, whereby qualitative data was collected from 19 interviewees using semi-structured interviews. The data were subjected to reflexive thematic analysis.
The study findings showed that university-based innovation hubs play an instrumental role in fostering entrepreneurship from a design thinking perspective as they promote industrial parks, ensure a rise in intellectual rights, foster stakeholder collaboration, spark creativity and innovation, strengthen entrepreneurship resilience and promote sustainable value addition and beneficiation.
The study focused on Zimbabwe only, which implies that the generalization of the results can be done with caution. Moreover, the study used cross-sectional data.
Based on the research findings, entrepreneurship educators can integrate design thinking principles in teaching entrepreneurship to support university-based innovation hubs. Moreover, bankers and nongovernmental organizations can provide financial resources to sustain the operations of the university-based innovation hubs and incubators.
According to the best knowledge of the author, this study contextualizes, enriches, and advances the extant entrepreneurship scholarship and discourse since the interaction between university-based innovation hubs and design thinking is underresearched in higher education. More interestingly, this study is the first of its kind in African countries, especially in Zimbabwe.
