This research examines the role of universities in supporting sustainability transitions in the context of nature‐protected areas through the leveraging of sustainable entrepreneurship. Universities are legitimate agents of change embedded within a territory and can play a pivotal role by initiating and supporting sustainable entrepreneurship ‐ a means of replacing unsustainable ventures with regenerative solutions linked to the success of sustainability transitions. However, the context of nature‐protected areas is unique on account of fragile ecosystems and cultural heritage sites – sustainable entrepreneurship can thus face a variety of challenges. This study focuses on a university‐led sustainable entrepreneurship program in North Sea nature‐protected areas, employing a multi‐level perspective framework for studying sustainability transitions. Through qualitative analysis of interviews, the study explores how such programs contribute to sustainability transitions by facilitating support to new sustainable entrepreneurs, creating coordination across actors and sustainability concerns, and creating a narrative for sustainability transition. The research contributes by spotlighting the role of universities in enhancing legitimacy and embeddedness in these areas, and in doing so, identifies new ‘third mission’ roles for universities. The research also provides one of the first attempts to synthesize ‘third mission’ concepts with sustainability transitions literature.

中文翻译：

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自然保护区的可持续创业支持计划：大学第三使命如何帮助可持续发展转型


本研究考察了大学通过利用可持续创业精神在支持自然保护区的可持续发展转型方面的作用。大学是嵌入一个地区的合法变革推动者，可以通过发起和支持可持续创业来发挥关键作用——这是一种用与可持续发展转型成功相关的再生解决方案取代不可持续企业的方法。然而，由于脆弱的生态系统和文化遗产地，自然保护区的背景是独一无二的——因此，可持续创业可能面临各种挑战。本研究的重点是北海自然保护区由大学主导的可持续创业计划，采用多层次视角框架来研究可持续性转型。通过对访谈的定性分析，该研究探讨了此类计划如何通过促进对新的可持续企业家的支持、建立参与者和可持续发展问题之间的协调以及为可持续发展转型创造叙述来促进可持续发展转型。该研究通过强调大学在增强这些领域的合法性和嵌入性方面的作用来做出贡献，并在此过程中确定了大学新的“第三使命”角色。该研究还提供了将“第三使命”概念与可持续性转型文献相结合的首次尝试之一。