The fourth focus group, USK

On November 25, 2024, the fourth round of research with a focus group was conducted, organized by the project team from the Faculty of Economics – Skopje, at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. The research was conducted in the form of a structured discussion via the Microsoft Teams platform and lasted approximately two and a half hours on the topic of innovation management and sustainable entrepreneurship in open innovation ecosystems in developing economies and economies in transition.

The focus group consisted of five participants – professionals in the field of innovation and sustainable entrepreneurship in the context of an academia to business (A2B) collaboration, with an emphasis on developing countries and economies in transition. Three of the respondents are representatives from accelerators and business support hubs, one of them is an entrepreneur at the same time, one is an innovation management consultant, and one is a green entrepreneur.

During the focus group, questions grouped into five segments were asked and discussed to identify the opportunities and challenges of innovation management and sustainable entrepreneurship in open innovation ecosystems in developing economies. The research segments focused on:

1. key actors (stakeholders) in innovation ecosystems,
2. the phases and tools (techniques) of the innovation process,
3. challenges of sustainable and responsible innovation,
4. collaboration between academia (higher education) and business (A2B), and
5. the ways in which A2B collaboration can foster sustainable and responsible innovation.