The modern knowledge-based economy acknowledges the role of the third mission of universities related to the process of knowledge transfer as a driving force to face sustainability issues, in addition to the two traditional missions focusing on research and teaching. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between internal environment, external environment, knowledge exploitation, knowledge exploration and university performance.,This study applies confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to test the conceptual model in the Chinese education system.,The findings confirm the higher impact of internal environment on both knowledge exploitation and knowledge exploration as compared to external environment. Knowledge exploitation is more strongly related to university performance than knowledge exploration. These results highlight the imperative role of internal university stakeholders in fostering knowledge management strategies. In addition, they encourage academicians, practitioners and policy makers to focus their attention on the impact of knowledge management models, tools and practices in universities to achieve the entrepreneurial development which, in turn, has a positive impact on individual graduates and innovation ecosystems.,The necessity to develop a more entrepreneurial university, as well as the lack of evidence of their development in emerging countries, highlights the need to investigate how specific factors and knowledge management processes are impacting the universities’ performance. In fact, although previous studies provide an explanation of the impact of internal and external factors on a university’s performance, contributions integrating these concepts with strategic knowledge management processes are still lacking.

中文翻译：

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知识探索与开发在创业型大学发展中的中介作用

基于知识的现代经济认识到大学的第三项使命，即与知识转移过程相关的第三项使命，以及面对研究和教学的两项传统使命，这是面对可持续性问题的动力。本文旨在研究内部环境，外部环境，知识开发，知识探索与大学绩效之间的关系。本研究应用验证性因子分析和结构方程模型对汉语教育体系中的概念模型进行检验。研究结果证实，与外部环境相比，内部环境对知识开发和知识探索的影响更大。知识开发比大学探索更紧密地与大学绩效相关。这些结果凸显了大学内部利益相关者在培育知识管理策略中的重要作用。此外，他们鼓励院士，从业人员和政策制定者将注意力集中在大学中知识管理模型，工具和实践对实现企业家发展的影响上，这反过来又对个别毕业生和创新生态系统产生积极影响。发展一所更具创业精神的大学的必要性，以及缺乏在新兴国家发展的证据，凸显了对调查具体因素和知识管理流程如何影响大学绩效的需求。实际上，尽管以前的研究可以解释内部和外部因素对大学绩效的影响，