Universities as strategic navigators: place leadership in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article investigates university place leadership within the context of a politically asymmetrical cross-border regional innovation system – China’s state-steered, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. We conceptualise place leadership as a process of strategic navigation, where universities manage two sets of tensions: (1) the strategic posture between state compliance and organisational opportunity and (2) the locus of their legitimacy between local political endorsement and global academic prestige. Based on a comparative analysis of seven universities, we develop a series of navigational profiles, revealing how universities mobilise resources and shape visions, offering insights for the study of place leadership and cross-border innovation.
Source: Regional Studies
Authors: Tatiana Fumasoli, Fumi Kitagawa
Institutions: University College London, University of Birmingham
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: University College London
OpenAlex ID: W4416067181