The Handbook of the Entrepreneurial University
The entrepreneurial university, as proposed at the outset of this edited collection, is not just about enterprise education and the broadening of its reach beyond business schools, but also about the university itself becoming entrepreneurial. Universities should change their culture and values “to have the ability to innovate, reorganize and create opportunities, work in teams, take risks and respond to challenges” (Chapter 1 by Redford and Fayolle, p. 12). The editors therefore support earlier claims for a “Third Mission” for universities, that, in building on their research and teaching, higher education institutions (HEIs) should be “focusing academic goals and converting knowledge produced at the university into economic and social utility” (Introduction, p. 3).
In seeking to address a variety of the elements in such ambitious proposals for rethinking HEIs, the book is divided into three broadly defined thematic sections, providing a range of international case studies examining different elements of the entrepreneurial university. The first part provides views of entrepreneurial universities and entrepreneurship education, the second more detailed pedagogical discussion and the third a broader examination of the relationships between entrepreneurial universities and external enterprises.
The first section of the book provides a loose but well-structured collection of differing views and approaches to the entrepreneurial university and entrepreneurship education. The first chapter, by the editors, builds on their introduction and provides a stakeholder analysis to develop recommendations for those attempting to develop an entrepreneurial university programme. The second chapter, by Gibb and Haskins, provides a more nuanced and insightful stakeholder approach. They build on Gibb's earlier work, adopting a deeper, less commercially driven approach to enterprise to address innovations of all kinds rather than focusing on the exploitation of intellectual property. Adopting the UK as their example, the authors highlight the types of challenges facing universities in complex, uncertain environments and the need for these pluralistic institutions to engage with stakeholders derived from groups who influence students’ consumer choices, giving greater prominence to entrepreneurial modes of action.
The remaining chapters in Part 1 take their lead more from the editors than Gibb and Haskins’ position, discussing, for example, new public management in German institutions (Chapter 5 by Reihlen and Wenzlaff) and the need for adaptation and adjustment in applying best practice to entrepreneurship education in different countries and cultures (Chapter 4 by Åmo).
Part 2 takes a more focused approach to pedagogy, discussing, for example, the case study of a Dutch agri-food science institution (Chapter 11 by Hulsink et al.) and entrepreneurship educators’ profiles and impacts on programme content (Chapter 12 by Steiner). Chapter 10, by Volkmann and Grünhagen, discusses policy support for making universities more entrepreneurial, examining the case of a long term, broad-ranging German programme seeking to encourage and support start-ups by staff and students. This chapter highlights the need to reduce risks in order to encourage wider participation in entrepreneurship as well as other means by which policies might help embed an entrepreneurial spirit within HEIs. However, in chapters such as this, or Chapter 9 by Markowska on the nurturing of entrepreneurial values, the book does little to engage with the potential limits of such values, which can tend towards individualisation, marketisation and risk-taking. These values are not necessarily suited to universities or the education they provide.
Part 3 deals, in quite broad terms, with the relationship between entrepreneurial universities and external enterprises, in areas such as the need to involve the expertise of business angels in the exploitation of intellectual property (Chapter 14 by McCarthy et al.) and the choice of site for spin off companies (Chapter 18 by Kolympiris et al.). Burg (Chapter 15) addresses an important element of entrepreneurial universities in discussing the ethics involved in the commercialisation of scientific research through university spin off companies, for example in the potential for conflicts of interest. Burg attempts to set out and evaluate the arguments for and against, concluding that, while not clear cut, overall an ethical assessment falls in favour of such commercialisation, principally because of the claimed impacts of entrepreneurship on economic growth.
Other chapters (e.g. Chapter 16 by Edwards and Muir) begin to engage with some of the ambiguities around entrepreneurship and entrepreneur education, for example around identities, but not in sufficient detail when set beside broader discussions (e.g. Chapter 17 by van Vuuren et al. on experiential learning) of the value for students in “empathizing with the life of the entrepreneur” (p. 403).
Overall, the book provides some useful insights for developing entrepreneurship education and will be of value for individual lecturers as well as for those more interested in strategic direction and policy. Despite a predominantly European focus, it has a good range of international perspectives (including, e.g. Tanzania, Chapter 6 by Msawalwiba et al. and Iran, Chapter 7 by Guerrero et al.) and provides a great deal of food for thought. It is difficult to dispute the idea that, as well providing support for employability, there is place for encouraging entrepreneurship in universities both in terms of research and teaching.
However, the suggestion that this is part of a university's core function is more contentious, though very few points of contention are engaged with in detail in the book. The proposed “third mission” is not strongly argued for and largely taken for granted. The reasons why it is necessary, beyond broader arguments for economic growth or drawing parallels between corporate performance and the aspirations of universities, are not clearly articulated or critically engaged with. As a result, for a reader not already committed to this vision of the future in HEIs, the book does not convince on this conception of an entrepreneurial university.
