The idea of an entrepreneurial university caught on fast after the American sociologist Burton R. Clark published his books on entrepreneurship in universities (Creating Entrepreneurial Universities, 1998; Sustaining Changes in Universities, 2004). Inspired by the alluring of the notion of an entrepreneurial university, and by decreasing levels of state funding for universities, we undertook a study on four very active ECIU universities (ECIU = European Consortium of Innovative Universities, www.eciu.org). To evaluate and quantify their level of entrepreneurship, we extracted from Burton Clark’s case studies twenty organisational practices against which a University’s entrepreneurship can be measured. These twenty practices or factors in effect formed the basis for an entrepreneurship audit. During a series of interviews, the extent to which the universities are seen as entrepreneurial by the interviewees was surveyed. We showed that the practices have been implemented only to various degrees and rather unsystematically. There are important differences among the universities, to some extent depending on the level of ambition that each university has regarding each practice. There are also important similarities; especially that entrepreneurship within universities has to be welcomed and facilitated top-down, but organically occurs and develops bottom-up. Implementing entrepreneurship at universities is thus about stimulating a culture of organic intrapreneurship and we provide practical recommendations and further research options to that effect.

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This paper reports on the findings of a semiotic content analysis of the visual branding of over 630 airline tail fins as they appeared in 2000 and 2012. Unlike existing studies of airlines’ visual identities that rely on a snap shot in time and examine all airlines, this paper focuses on changes that have occurred in the visual branding of full-service carriers (FSCs) and low cost carriers (LCCs) between 2000 and 2012. The results confirm that there have been significant changes in the visual content of FSC and LCC tail fins and the way in which these airlines portray non-price competitive characteristics. The research shows that while an increasing number of LCCs now use aircraft tail fins to display their corporate name, FSCs are increasingly employing icons of nationhood. This suggests that while LCCs are trying to appeal to a wide passenger demographic who value low fares over service, FSCs are responding to the competitive threat by explicitly drawing on the cultural rhetoric of symbols of sovereign national identity to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market.