Abstract
The concept of the entrepreneurial university has been increasingly prevalent since Burton Clark’s (1998) eponymous work. There continue to be many contributions to the field, and there is a need for a comprehensive, or ideally a definitive, treatment of the subject. Does this Handbook meet the need? One would expect Alain Fayolle’s prior record in producing a multi-volume opus on entrepreneurship education to raise the level of confidence that this can be achieved.
The book is structured in three parts: the first offers eight contributions on different perspectives of the entrepreneurial university from a strategic perspective, most of which adopt a transnational or national context to the study, mainly of educational programmes. The introductory chapter by the authors addresses stakeholder management concepts and briefly reprises the triple helix model of university–industry–government relationships (Etzkowitz et al., 2008). Given the centrality and popularity of this approach, it is unfortunate that a chapter could not have been dedicated to this subject, ideally from Henry Etzkowitz himself. The chapter from Allan Gibb and Gay Haskins, on ‘the university of the future’, draws on a number of themes from Gibb’s long involvement in the field, and addresses both the task-led pressures and relational responses by universities to these which can be achieved through rebalancing stakeholder relationships. The other chapters in this section demonstrate the movement towards entrepreneurial institutions in different European countries, the United States, Canada, Nordic countries, Tanzania and the Middle East. What is perhaps lacking, except from Gibb, is a more rigorous exploration of the role of government, regional policies and business expectations towards universities which requires entrepreneurial responses, and the dynamic effects which these often have on changing institutional values, goals, structures and reward systems. There is a range of policy-led prescriptions on entrepreneurial universities, including an official award in the United Kingdom, and an assessment framework at European level, for example. Yet, these models are not subject to the critique in the book which they arguably require.
Part 2 explores pedagogic practices in entrepreneurial education, a subject which has been amply explored in previous works. However, there are some useful contributions here, including Markowska’s brief introduction on the university as nurturer of entrepreneurial values. Other contributions address German, Dutch and Norwegian perspectives. What is perhaps missing here is a serious critique of the values, ethos and objectives of entrepreneurship education, which are rather taken as read. Given the shock to the system of the 2008 financial crash and the multiple consequences for Higher Education funding systems and institutions, some discussion of entrepreneurship in relation to social values, accountability and moral responsibilities would have been relevant. The issue here is whether the concept of the entrepreneurial university should be accepted as automatically a ‘good thing’ or, as many academics might still regard it, a problematic and questionable concept. This is not a new argument, but it has not been conclusively decided. Elco van Burg’s contribution to the debate on the ethical issues of commercialising scientific research usefully explores some of these issues.
Part 3 addresses the relationship between entrepreneurial universities and forms of enterprise including spin-offs, technology transfer and venture capital. What these categories rather surprisingly do not include is the student and graduate start-up, yet this is a vital contribution and metric for academic entrepreneurialism, which many universities address through business incubation, mentoring, competitions and other means. Some of the chapters in this section are more relevant to the topic than others, and the inclusion of several which refer back to the educational scope of the previous section possibly confuse the issue. Edwards and Muir cogently relate some of the definitional ambiguities and transitional issues of universities becoming entrepreneurial via a meandering path. Finally, the concluding chapter on entrepreneurship education in Denmark cites some of the interesting and innovative work which is in process there.
Does this book provide the definitive treatment of the subject which is required? In part yes, but the inclusion of rather too many national and transnational studies supported by tabular data does not entirely contribute to a coherent narrative or argument. The question which really needs to be asked is, almost 20 years after the research undertaken for Clark’s book, whether the normative concept of ‘the entrepreneurial university’ is still valid, relevant and helpful? Arguably, all universities must be entrepreneurial to some extent if they are to survive at all in a market-driven environment in which state funding is a declining element in their viability. What the book does not demonstrate is that there is a workable archetype or prescription for ‘the entrepreneurial university’, nor in fairness does it aim to do so. Universities worldwide, and even in national contexts, are still marvellously diverse and heterogeneous products of their distinctive missions, cultures and contexts. They can evolve to become entrepreneurial and yet still be authentic to their values. They do not have to become learning supermarkets or corporate researchers-for-hire. Attempts to drive transformational change to become ‘the entrepreneurial university’ have rebounded with unfortunate consequences in several cases. Universities, generally, are not businesses, instruments of economic and social policy, or machines. They are complex social and educational organisations with multiple goals, accountabilities and concepts of value.
The idea of ‘the entrepreneurial university’ is not a fixed point or descriptor of identity, and as such, its utility may be limited in view of the complexity and continual change in this field. Universities of different types, philosophies and in varying contexts find different ways of becoming entrepreneurial. The editors observe that ‘turning the traditional university into a more entrepreneurial one is above all a matter of culture and values, and is the essence in [the] role of embedding entrepreneurial education’. This book offers a range of useful research perspectives, ideas and insights on universities in process of becoming entrepreneurial organisations, and for that it is both timely and welcomed.