Pathways to the entrepreneurial university: towards a global convergence

Abstract

This paper analyzes the transition to the entrepreneurial university as part of a broader shift to a knowledge-based economy, arising from a complex interplay between exogenous (top-down) and endogenous factors (bottom-up) of a more or less similar nature, combined in different ways in different countries. Drawing on the experience of four countries (US, Sweden, Japan and Brazil) with different institutional trajectories and degrees of academic entrepreneurial transformation, under varying degrees of state control and levels of university initiative, we argue that a global convergence is currently taking shape toward entrepreneurial universities playing a central role in a knowledgebased economy that moves beyond etatism and pure market relations to an intermediate position within a triple helix regime. The role of public venture capital in financing the transition to the entrepreneurial university and its possible interventions in a counter-cyclical business model, which is also active in periods of economic downturn, are also discussed.

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“…Thus, the role of entrepreneurship in university activity depends on several institutional factors: institutional autonomy, the allocation of funding streams, governance mechanisms and the surrounding entrepreneurial climate. Furthermore, a distinction can be made between the exogenous (top-down) and endogenous (bottom-up) factors that shape universities' transformations into entrepreneurial institutions [Etzkowitz et al, 2008]. Exogenous factors include external shocks, such as the 2008 economic crisis and subsequent grand societal challenges, which then called for knowledge-based and sustainable solutions.…”

Humboldt Meets Schumpeter? Interpreting the ‘Entrepreneurial Turn’ in European Higher Education

“…(Etzkowitz et al 2000: 313; see also Etzkowitz et al 2008) The first traced publication referring to entrepreneurial behavior at a European university dates back to the early 1990s when Maassen and van Buchem (1990) described how the leadership structures at the University of Twente in the Netherlands turned an institutional crisis into a strategic opportunity. The result was the reinvention of a relatively marginalized regional university into a dynamic and innovative academic establishment.…”

Introducing the Intellectual Capital Interplay Model: Advancing Knowledge Frameworks in the Not-for-Profit Environment of Higher Education

“…Etzkowitz, Ranga, Benner, Guaranys, Maculan, and Kneller, (2008) conducted a multi-nation survey of endogenous and exogenous factors driving knowledge management in the United States, Japan, Sweden, and Brazil. Their study concluded that American higher education institutions as well as those in Asia, Europe, and Latin America have come to see knowledge management as central to their raison d'etre in today's know economy.…”