Is Academic Entrepreneurialism a Universal Concept? New Ideas and Insights From Contextualisation Beyond East and West

Abstract

This paper considers the conceptualisation of ‘academic entrepreneurialism’ and develops new ideas and insights by contextualising the concept. It critically reviews the conceptual literature of academic entrepreneurialism which is dominated by research and conceptualisation by the West and reflects its implications for understanding academic entrepreneurialism in China. After that, it answers the key question: Is academic entrepreneurialism a universal concept? By academic entrepreneurialism, it refers to the phenomenon that universities are willing to supply knowledge for capitalising new opportunities, managing risks and maximising revenues, reputation, or human capital in response to the demands for education, research and knowledge solutions by the knowledge society and economy, as well as developing new markets for their knowledge-based services and goods. This paper draws on global perspective and the case of Chinese higher education, and engages in conceptual discussions about the applied universality of academic entrepreneurialism and its limitations of making sense of cultural uniqueness in various contexts. We argue that academic entrepreneurialism is not a universal and all-encompassing template but the beginning of constitutive, continuous and complex transformation of institutional reasoning of different universities across the world. Not taking the culturalist presuppositions, new ideas from this paper may be helpful for reconsidering, redesigning and reorganising research, education and engagement of universities beyond East and West so as to foster their self-understanding in the entrepreneurial age and future-oriented development.

Exploring the future-ready graduate attributes across the undergraduate curricula from the eight publicly funded Hong Kong universities in the era of academic entrepreneurism

“…Although academic entrepreneurialism remains as a broadly defined term, it generally refers to how universities are capitalising new opportunities and resources, managing limitations and risks, as well as maximising revenues, reputation, and human capital in response to the demands for education, research, and knowledge solutions associated with the development of both knowledge-based society and economy. In particular, the entrepreneurial turn of development of universities around the world has lingering implications on what it means for them to research, teach, educate, and learn (Tang & Zhang, 2023). Siegel and Wright (2015) highlight that the question of whether a university is effective in engaging academic entrepreneurism is not simply an empirical issue but also a policy issue, which touches upon understanding both the universities' fundamental purposes and everyday operations.…”

Achievements, challenges, and opportunities: Redesigning higher education in East Asia for a better future

“…The third theme pays attention to more micro-level higher education phenomena and activities, including academic entrepreneurialism, university image-creation, and international student mobility. Tang and Zhang (2023) ask the research question of ‘is academic entrepreneurialism a universal concept’ and attempt to unpack to what extent this concept captures cultural nuances and variances across contexts. Engaging with the existing literature, they argue that although academic entrepreneurialism is not a universal or all-encompassing concept, it may serve as a starting point for more constitutive, continuous, and complex transformations of institutional reasoning by universities across the world.…”