Entrepreneurial Universities

In the knowledge-based society, universities have assumed new missions and relations in order to contribute to economic and social development, normally discussed under innovation and entrepreneurship concepts. This chapter aims to explore relevant scientific literature in what concerns the activities related to innovation and entrepreneurship in the academic setting. It reports early results of a systematic literature review considering articles published on Web of Science, in which both bibliometric and content analysis are being conducted. Content analysis of a set of articles aimed to identify characteristics of universities that endure into innovation and entrepreneurship, and the activities related to innovation and entrepreneurship in the academic setting. Turns out that characteristics are mainly associated to the concept of the entrepreneurial university, in with changes occurring within universities and on their relations within the knowledge-based society are discussed. Both the internal changes and relations are related to the need of universities to contribute to regional socioeconomic development throw the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge, and to the need to support its own sustainability. More than 20 different activities related to innovation and entrepreneurship within universities were identify. They are related to regional socioeconomic development, and to the sustainability of universities; to individuals within universities, to the university itself, and to the relation of the university with its surroundings; to the process and results of knowledge creation, knowledge dissemination and knowledge application; to profit-gain of the university or its partners, and to social development of the communities surrounding the university; and to fulfilling the universities missions and to their relations within the knowledge based society. Empirical studies should be conducted in order to verify if all these activities in fact contribute to innovation and entrepreneurship in the academic setting, and if there are other activities eventually not listed by the analyzed literature.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze, from a theory of planned behavior perspective, the role of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention. A conceptual model is developed based on the literature discussing the importance of entrepreneurship education in global economic and social development. A number of hypothesis are developed based on demographic factors, risk taking propensity, proactiveness and self-efficacy to understand their relationship with entrepreneurial intention. The hypothesis are tested in a survey of Brazilian university students with the results suggesting that age, occupation of father and risk taking propensity do influence the intention of an individual to engage in entrepreneurial behavior. These results are then discussed in terms of practical and theoretical implications for entrepreneurship education. Future research suggestions are also stated highlighting the importance of fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in university students.

This paper aims at empirically measuring the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of university departments and the impact it has on their ability to generate patents and spin-offs from research. Moving from a recent operazionalization of universities’ EO developed by a group of scholars in Canada, we used a web-based questionnaire to collect information from 206 heads of department of Italian and Spanish universities. Through a multiple regression analysis we assessed the relationship between departments’ EO and performance, expressed in terms of patents and spin-offs. Our findings show that the EO significantly affects the ability of university departments to generate patents and spin-offs. However, not all the dimensions we used to operationalize the EO play the same role. In this sense, our study shows that much more attention should be paid to the context-specific conditions, that can definitively affect the results and the relationships between the investigated variables. Implications, limitations and future improvements of the research are discussed.

At a time of economic uncertainty, it is necessary to find new alternatives to improve the employment situation. One of the solutions is to foster entrepreneurship from the institutions of higher education (IHE). The IHE do not only have the function of training students. Their work goes beyond, insofar as they have a very important role in the transfer of knowledge to society. While entrepreneurship is something not too extended in the University classroom, past experiences promoted by the IHE, highlight an important interest in such initiatives. The main objective of this chapter is to point out the essential role of the IHE in the field of entrepreneurship, based on different actions that can be applied. Among other elements, the results of initiatives such as university business incubators, university spin-offs, mentoring (expert advice), business angels (agents that bring money or experience to future entrepreneurs), etc., will be discussed. This study will be done both from a national perspective, and compared with the perspective at European level, to determine the main results of the different alternatives. Together with the above, a set of best practices for university entrepreneurship (networks of entrepreneurship, studies focused on the creation of new enterprises, updating and recycling business courses, university aids to entrepreneurship, etc.), will also be dealt with. The methodology applied, based on case studies, will allow us to know the development of university entrepreneurial activities, in order to extrapolate the experiences to the Spanish reality.

Studies have shown the influence of certain formal and informal environmental factors on entrepreneurial spirit. The aim of this research was to study the influence of university context on university students’ entrepreneurial intentions. A structural model linking these two environmental variables to entrepreneurial intention was developed and used to achieve this aim. These two environmental variables were university context, which measured informal aspects, and entrepreneurial education, which reflected formal aspects. The relationships in the model were tested using partial least squares (PLS) analysis for a sample consisting of 2497 university students. Results highlight the importance of entrepreneurial education’s effect on entrepreneurial intentions. To a lesser degree, results also reveal the importance of the university environment in which the student develops. The university context strongly and positively influences entrepreneurial intentions indirectly through entrepreneurial education. This chapter offers a novel methodological contribution in the study of data from the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey. The data were analysed using an application of PLS structural equation modelling.

An increasing body of literature has begun to emerge on innovation and entrepreneurship in the academic setting. However, literature is still fragmented, requiring more systematic studies, considering both economic and social aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship within universities. This chapter contributes to this subject by discussing the suitability of using systemism as an approach to understand innovation and entrepreneurship as mechanisms that allow universities to contribute to socioeconomic development and to preserve their own sustainability. Particularly, the case of the University of Southern Santa Catarina (Unisul), in Brazil, is analyzed. Results show that systemism is suitable, among other reasons, because universities are in fact complex systems, it allows to consider the three levels by which innovation and entrepreneurship have been studied within universities (individual, organization, and interaction), and it offers clear conceptual dimensions that can be applied to both theoretical and empirical levels of research.

In modern knowledge societies, universities have had to broaden their traditional teaching and research functions to include the third mission, thus strengthening their commitment to society and industry. Tackling this objective requires defining new educational models which are more focused on continuous learning, innovation, social engagement and productive creation. It is a responsibility of the universities to work with their students and staff to create an environment that supports social and economic development based on entrepreneurial and innovative foundations.

The objective of this paper is to show how educational innovation in entrepreneurship and technology transfer consolidates the third mission and transforms higher education institutions into entrepreneurial universities. The results obtained suggest that public investment to promote entrepreneurship in universities is efficient. To improve these results it is necessary to determine standards in entrepreneurial education to introduce them into the academic curriculum and strengthen incubators focused on the creation of academic spin-offs from university R&D results.

The research about entrepreneurship has a long tradition in academic literature. Various studies have identified the knowledge and evolution, and they have pointed the interest of the universities to research of this topic. If we analyse the most relevant journals we can established the future perspective of entrepreneurship. But ¿where are the principal research centres about entrepreneurship in Spain? We have searched in Web of Science (WOS) the chapters which analyse the entrepreneurship and we have identified the University of the Authors and the collaborative network. In this sense, we establish the relevance of Spanish University papers, the link between Spanish and foreign universities, the level of the university studies in the academic rankings, the increase of university research about entrepreneurship, and where are the principal research centres about entrepreneurship in Spain. All of this enable to establish link of research between different universities and to show to the Spanish government where incentivize the research about entrepreneurship.

The creation of knowledge-based firms has become particularly important in recent decades, bringing with it a proliferation of university support programs for setting up spin-offs. Nonetheless, there is no single model of support program for the creation of spin-offs. Indeed, what characterizes these programs is precisely that heterogeneity, and it is therefore difficult to establish criteria for classification. There may be different ways of doing so, all valid, but difficult to group. Using a review of the literature, this paper identifies a number of variables that determine the characteristics of support programs for setting up academic spin-offs: the origin of the initiative; area of activity; objectives; funding for the program; type of spin-off to which support is provided; organization of the support activities; degree of integration and degree of autonomy. It goes on to establish the conditions under which it appears that they should go in one direction or other and identifies four basic models: programs established at low-quality universities with unfavorable environments; programs established in high-quality universities with unfavorable environments; programs established at low-quality universities with favorable environments and programs established in high-quality universities with favorable environments. The results of the study may provide a good guide for academic authorities involved in implementing support programs for creating spin-offs or for improving the efficiency of existing programs.

In its most general and broad term, the university is still considered today as the most important hub of any society in terms of scientific research, knowledge transfer and spread of humanistic culture. However, in recent years, the university has acquired an increasingly important role as a strategic focus of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, both within societies of developed countries and in developing regions, where it is necessary to push towards the establishment of a business network that generates employment and welfare.

As a way to reinforce this entrepreneurial attitude in universities, and more specifically in higher education institutions located in Colombia, this study presents the case of the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Business Center of Sergio Arboleda University—Sergio i + E in Bogota, Colombia. The aim of this work is to present the processes, methodologies and tools developed by the aforementioned center in its efforts to serve as an instrument to promote entrepreneurship among the university community and serve as a link among other Colombian groups and institutions, all in order to motivate and promote progress and a generation a self-sustaining development initiatives.

As part of this work, some examples and data from major entrepreneurial projects that have been carried out in the Sergio i + E center will be presented, in order to show clearly the need of developing and strengthen own institutions inside the university to encourage and promote entrepreneurial attitudes and skills of the students, as well as provide them with consultancy and advisory mechanisms in their emerging business projects, while serving as a focus of development and realization of ideas within Colombian society.

To counter the high failure rate of small entrepreneurial start-up companies, many universities set up business incubators that nurture start-ups until they are prepared to stand on their own. There are many different types of incubator, and while the evidence of their success is inconsistent, some research suggests that they do succeed in one of their primary goals because start-ups that begin in incubators have a higher survival rate (c.f. J Technol Transf 48(5):692–710, 2004) compared to non-incubator companies.

Traditional definitions of incubators (J Technol Transf 29(1):55–82, 2004) generally include: (a) Shared office space rented at favourable rates, (b) Shared support services that reduce overhead costs, (c) Professional business support, advice and mentoring, and (d) Professional and trade networking. While each of these aspects has been studied by academics, the general consensus is that the most important factor for start-up success is the final factor—organized networking (Int J Entrepreneur Innovat Manage 4(2–3):248–270, 2004). Recent work has shifted the focus of research on the role played by incubators as a mechanism for embedding a company within networks, recognizing that much of the entrepreneurial literature stresses that access to networks plays a crucial role for start-ups and small companies.

In recent years, the business world has seen major changes in the way that organizations manage their network interactions and interactions with customers. One of the main factors in this change is new technology and data transmission capabilities. However little research has yet looked at networking and cooperation activities within incubators or how entrepreneurs use these technology-enabled networks to support development and growth.

The aim of this chapter is to examine non-profit university-based incubators focusing on their role in business networking and cooperative activities. The study is exploratory and focuses on incubators at two large public universities in Spain and the UK. The main contribution of this chapter is to confirm that effectiveness assessment of incubators is so far un-systematic. This is dangerous because the lack of rigorous assessment tools and methodologies feeds the uncertainty surrounding business incubator effectiveness and ultimately threatens their ability to make meaningful contributions to the success of the companies they nurture.

Valencia Polytechnic University (UPV) is innovative as far as its training and evaluation considerations are concerned. It has introduced the project “Incorporating transversal competences into UPV graduates’ curriculum” as a strategic challenge, which promotes the training and assessment of transversal competences in several UPV degrees. This work presents an innovative group work experience by assigning roles in preparing a portfolio. Students participate in team work by playing a role whose tasks and competences are previously determined by the teacher, who also describes the role and its competency profile. Students participate in the portfolio by playing the role that they are committed to and co-assess it by a performance assessment system designed in the group. The main work conclusions drawn are that this innovative classroom-based strategy motivates students, helps organise group work and encourages collaborative learning.

Quality and innovation are two key aspects in today’s higher educational systems. The rapid rise of online education in the European Higher Education Area context creates a challenge to maintain quality levels in learning processes and creates the need to develop new methodologies adapted to this type of education, in order to assess skills acquisition in a rigorous and participatory way. Quality guidelines from the European Model of Higher Education recommend the consideration of two key issues: Information management for decision-making processes and evaluation system capable of compiling student’s participation as well as autonomous learning processes. This research presents a methodology that evaluates the autonomous and online learning, using two statistical analyses: Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Goal Programming. To validate this evaluation methodology, we have used seven tools provided by Moodle. The research is conducted on a group of 71 students participating in an online higher education degree in two subjects related to quantitative studies. The “Tutorials” and “Solved Exercises” have been the best-valued tools for the acquisition of this competition, followed by the “Tasks”. The joint assessments have been validated according to the degree of agreement of the students, using an index of closeness. The results suggest that the multi-criteria analysis can be very useful for the evaluation of competences in the European Higher Education Area.

This paper is to analyze the adequacy of the methodological strategies that must be developed in University degrees due to the implementation of the EEES. Hence, we proceeded to the implementation and evaluation of a practical nature activity aimed at the business sector as a tool for the training of students of university degrees. Thus, it was shown that the realization of a business practice activity allows students to train more fully, but has allowed them to develop skills inherent to university degrees, such as teamwork, proper management of human resources available or develop their analytical skills.

In the last few decades, there has been growing interest in the so-called third mission of universities, one of which, the question of entrepreneurship, will be highlighted in this paper. Hence, universities have been configured as institutions to proactively motivate there alumnae, and there, students will find an ideal environment in which to familiarize themselves with the skills and expertise that entrepreneurs require. Furthermore, universities provide advisory services as well as technical support, which are essential elements of sowing the seed of business start-ups. This chapter sets out, from a qualitative perspective, the policies, strategies and actions undertaken by the University of Valencia to encourage university entrepreneurship. It also includes the outcomes from the past year. We based our approach on the Comprehensive Model for University Entrepreneurship Encouragement, proposed by, with which we were able to describe the entire entrepreneurial process carried out by the University of Valencia in a logical order. This chapter contributes to existing literature by adding to the repertoire of papers to outline the entrepreneurial experiences of other universities. At the same time, it provides a guide for other academic institutions whose procedures are still in the early stages of design and implementation.

There is growing interest in entrepreneurship within universities. Universities aim to develop entrepreneurial skills in their students and establish the necessary paths to support entrepreneurial activities. This chapter focuses on entrepreneurial universities as key agents for the socioeconomic development of cities, regions, and nations. The chapter examines the transformation of universities to meet new business development needs and the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) as an entrepreneurial university.

This chapter describes several basic aspects of the economy and entrepreneurship in Mexican society as the framework in which CETYS University carries out its teaching program. The aim of this paper is to focus on the Master of Business Administration teaching program at CETYS. The globalization of markets, technological change and the knowledge economy require that universities play a more proactive role, and this is what CETYS seeks to incorporate. It also considers that the biggest challenges for Mexico are to help entrepreneurs to be more innovative and technologically oriented, so they can increase competitiveness and satisfy the global consumer and provide them with the knowledge and skills which they need in order to reduce the fear of failure. To provide these skills and knowledge, this paper highlights that there are two types of skills which must accompany entrepreneurship: the skills related to team work and those related to communication; accordingly, the entrepreneur is not only able to discover opportunity, but he/she can also create it, both in the economic dimension as well as in the social dimension of entrepreneurship.

Past research on business internships recognizes positive effects on its main stakeholders: students, employers, and higher education institutions. Moreover, some authors have acknowledged further effects in virtual internships and when applying new technologies to the internship experience, particularly referred to enhanced computer skills and learning outcomes. The Faculty of Business Administration and Management of the Universitat Politècnica de València, in Spain, has experienced an outstanding increase of its internships in recent years. As employers are demanding more computer skills in a globalized and technological world, it is expected that virtual internships and the use of ICTs during the traineeship will be a tendency in higher education institutions in the future. At present, the management of internships of the two new Double Degrees in our institution (Business Administration and Management + Computer Science Engineering, and Business Administration and Management + Telecommunications Engineering), offers, in the opinion of the authors, the perfect scenario to explore the possibilities of new technologies applied to internships and to put into practice virtual internships. Recent changes in the Spanish laws and in the regulations of universities, such as the Universitat Politècnica de València, allow business internships to take place abroad. These conditions could provide an opportunity for innovation and growth, especially by combining internationalization with virtualization of traineeships. The above mentioned initiative is a good sample of intrapreneurship within a large organization, where the employees, in this case, the authors of this text, behave like entrepreneurs, acting like agents of change.

The main objective of the research is to analyze the entrepreneurial attitude of university students of the Tourism Degree in Spain and Portugal, as well as insight into how they perceive that the studies carried out have assisted them to increase their entrepreneurial profile. The methodology consists of a descriptive analysis of the data obtained through a questionnaire administered using statistical tests of comparison of means, T-Student and Contingency tables allowing to check the hypotheses and analyze the differences between the two countries. The results show that over 65 % of students surveyed intend to create their own business, being greater in Portugal with 85 % and considering that for Spanish students the most important personal attributes that they must have are assuming responsibility for the decisions taken and easily adapting to changes in the case of Portugal, considered essential to be autonomous and making working hours be precise. In terms of training, students consider the discipline of entrepreneurship important for their education and they say they should have more courses related to entrepreneurship.

This chapter involves verifying the influence of teaching entrepreneurship on entrepreneurial activities among university students (N = 418) in a comparative international context on three distinct realities (Portugal, Spain and Brazil). We are made recourse to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), estimated through the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. In order to determine the statistically significant differences among the path coefficients for the models for the three countries, we adopted Henseler’s approach. A multigroups analysis was performed to test the existence of significant differences between the three countries relating to student’s entrepreneurial orientation. The results show differences between countries in several dimensions explaining the entrepreneurial intentions of the students. Furthermore, our results convey the relevance of identifying the different entrepreneurial intentions prevailing in different countries alongside the respective sources of such influences. Some entrepreneurial implications are discussed on final considerations.