This study provides an overview of the important initiatives higher education institutions (HEIs) are implementing to develop their entrepreneurial and innovative potential. The authors performed a systematic analysis of the 62 case studies reported on the HEInnovate website. The initiatives described within these case studies are classified under the eight dimensions of the HEInnovate framework and further grouped under new sub-dimensions which emerged inductively during content analysis. For each sub-dimension, the study analyses the similarities and specificities of the initiatives taken by universities and identifies key learnings and future challenges. The most frequently highlighted dimensions include entrepreneurial teaching and learning, knowledge exchange and collaboration, leadership and governance, and organisational capacity. Findings reveal the key role of strategy and organisational resources and capacities in developing the entrepreneurial agenda and the strong alignment of the entrepreneurial university to its three missions.
TopIntroduction
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are increasingly under pressure to provide solutions to society’s problems (EC, 2013; Jessop, 2017), including dealing with the impact of economic crises and reducing youth unemployment (EC, 2014). In this regard, the role of universities in developing human capital, knowledge capital and entrepreneurial capital is widely recognised (Guerrero et al., 2016). HEIs are also regarded as drivers of innovation and entrepreneurship, with the expectation that they contribute not only to knowledge generation but also to knowledge transfer for commercialisation and the benefit of society (Guerrero et al., 2016; Audretsch, 2014). Ultimately, HEIs are tasked with stimulating regional economic development (Cohen et al., 2002; Klofsten et al., 2019), and as such, they play an important yet challenging role in the creation and development of entrepreneurial ecosystems (Guerrero et al., 2016).
To fulfil their role, entrepreneurial universities have had to progressively expand their activities beyond teaching and research in an effort to accommodate the so-called third mission of the university: “contribution to society” (Compagnucci & Spigarelli, 2020; Etzkowitz & Zhou, 2017). Accordingly, HEIs have developed initiatives such as entrepreneurship training programmes, extracurricular activities, research commercialisation (Gianiodis & Meek, 2020), consultation services, incubation facilities and science and technology parks (Jessop, 2017).
The development of entrepreneurial universities and the organisational transformation that is required to achieve entrepreneurial goals has opened up new debates in the literature. Extant scholarship highlights the orientation of a university towards knowledge versus its potential shift towards commercialisation as one particular area of tension (Shane, 2004). A second area of tension has been identified between the public function of universities and the university’s immersion into a profit-oriented and economic order (Jessop, 2017). Scholars have also questioned whether too many demands are being put on universities (Henry, 2013).
Entrepreneurial universities are also required to assess the effectiveness and impact of their entrepreneurial efforts. However, common assessment measures for entrepreneurship education programmes (Matlay, 2008; EU 2012) such as students’ entrepreneurial intentions following enrolment in their entrepreneurial programmes (Iglesias-Sánchez et al., 2016) do not capture the full extent of entrepreneurial outcomes and may even provide contradictory results (Oosterbeek et al., 2010). Other assessment measures that account for economic impact, such as revenues from licensing, new venture creation or start-up figures (Guerrero et al., 2015), may place too much emphasis on commercial thinking or fail to consider the university’s contribution to society in a broader context (Gianiodis & Meek, 2020).
The HEInnovate tool (www.heinnovate.eu) was launched in 2013 as a joint effort of the European Commission and the OECD to help HEIs become more innovative and entrepreneurial, and to help them assess their entrepreneurial/innovative endeavours. HEInnovate is a self-reflection tool that is structured across eight key dimensions that help HEIs systematically evaluate their entrepreneurial/innovative strengths and weaknesses, and foster internal discussion to help HEIs identify potential areas for improvement. HEInnovate also provides on-line resources, including training materials, workshops, case studies and user stories to support HEIs in their endeavours to become more entrepreneurial.
We posit that HEIs could benefit considerably by studying the entrepreneurial endeavours of other HEIs to explore the mechanisms they employed (as well as the challenges they had to overcome) to become more entrepreneurial, and to learn from their experiences. Accordingly, by reviewing the case studies available on the HEInnovate website, the overarching aim of this chapter is to examine how different universities across Europe develop their entrepreneurialism. Our research questions focus on: What initiatives and actions have European HEIs taken to become more entrepreneurial, and what can we learn from these experiences?
To address these research questions, we systematically review 62 HEInnovate case studies and apply the eight dimensions of the HEInnovate framework to analyse our findings. This review forms part of the EU funded project THEI2.0 “Towards HEInnovate 2.0: From assessment to action”, which was designed to enhance the use and value of the HEInnovate tool.