Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
ISSN 2183-0606
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Journal of Innovation Management Hannon
JIM 1, 2 (2013) 10-17
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Journal of Innovation Management Hannon
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creating frameworks and tools to aid institutional leaders and academic staff to build
successful entrepreneurial universities and address the types of challenges and
obstacles highlighted above.
Although there are challenges in understanding the why and what of the
entrepreneurial university, more and more universities recognise both its importance
for a 21st Century higher education institution and the need to enhance organisational
flexibility and adaptability. However the greatest challenge remains in how
universities become entrepreneurial institutions and how they create effective
environments for developing entrepreneurial capacities in their staff and students.
In the UK this has been approached initially through the creation of exemplars and
role models in the sector. NCGE (now the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in
Education, NCEE) has been running annual Entrepreneurial University of the Year
Awards with the Times Higher. Each year one university is selected from six finalists
that best exemplify achievements during the past year in growing entrepreneurship.
The framework behind this award emphasises the importance of an entrepreneurial
environment, an entrepreneurial and innovative faculty, an engaged student
community, and a resulting impact on the institution, its stakeholders and its environs.
4 An European Model
In Europe, the European Commission working with OECD have built an online self-
assessment tool, HEInnovate (access at www.heinnovate.eu), as a guiding framework
for the entrepreneurial university. This framework focuses on 7 key pillars identified
through a thorough review of existing research and thinking and with a group of
experts from across Europe. The tool aims to provide higher education institutions
with the opportunity to reflect on their perceptions of strengths and weaknesses in
each key area thereby helping to identify institutional development needs. The 7
pillars are:
Leadership and governance
Organisational Capacity, People and Incentives
Entrepreneurship Development in Teaching and Learning
University-Business/External Relationships for Knowledge Exchange
The Entrepreneurial HEI as an Internationalised Institution
Pathways for Entrepreneurs
Measuring the Impact
Creating an environment for the enhancement of entrepreneurial thinking and
behaviors across all subject areas also creates challenges. The UK has been
investigating this and the Quality Assurance Agency published a guidance note
(QAA, 2012) for embedding enterprise and entrepreneurship in higher education. This
document aims to provide examples of how entrepreneurial learning opportunities can
be provided within formalised curricula and through extra-curricula provision. The
framework also proposes a learner journey that begins with raising awareness,
progressing to the development of entrepreneurial mindsets, on to enhancing
entrepreneurial capacities and finally to enhancing entrepreneurial effectiveness.
The challenge is for universities to review what they do and how and the effects on
the enhancement or inhibition of the development of entrepreneurial capacities that
will underpin innovation capacity. How often are the institutions structures and
policies, all curricula, business and industry collaborations, internationalisation
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6 Summary
In summary, the role of the entrepreneurial university is increasingly being seen as
important for finding new ways to compete and succeed in uncertain and
unpredictable environments and for finding new solutions to the multiple challenges
that need to be addressed for the public good, whether local or global.
How universities create the pathways and strategies for successfully travelling this
journey are contingent on many factors. However, HEInnovate and other such
frameworks and tools enable universities in all contexts and across all countries to
explore where they have opportunities to further develop. The most challenging
change, as in many complex organisations, is the realignment of organisational values
and culture and changing the mindsets of individuals.
The journey has begun in many universities across Europe and beyond and is likely to
increase in pace during the current decade as institutions reflect and respond
entrepreneurially to their changing environments.
7 References
Arbo, P. & Benneworth P. (2006) Understanding the Regional Contribution of
Higher Education Institutions. OECD/IMHE.
Clark, B. (1998) Creating Entrepreneurial Universities: Organizational Pathways of
Transformation, Pergamon Press.
Drucker, P. (1985) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Principles and Practice. Harper
& Row, New York.
Etzkowitz, H. (2004) The Evolution of the Entrepreneurial University. International
Journal of Technology and Globalisation, 1:1, 64-77.
Gibb, A. A. (2005) Towards the Entrepreneurial University: Entrepreneurship
Education as a Lever for Change. National Council for Graduate
Entrepreneurship, UK.
Gibb, A. A. (2012) Exploring the Synergistic Potential in Entrepreneurial University
Development: Towards the Building of a Strategic Framework. Annals of
Innovation & Entrepreneurship, 3, 1-21.
Gibb, A. A. & Hannon, P. D. (2006) Towards the Entrepreneurial University.
International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, Vol. 4, 73-110.
Gibb, A. A., Haskins, G., Hannon, P. D. & Robertson, I. (2012) Leading the
Entrepreneurial University. published by the National Centre for
Entrepreneurship in Education, UK.
Hannon, P. D. (2007) Enterprise for All: The Fragility of Enterprise Provision across
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