Entrepreneurial Universities: A Multi-context Perspective

Entrepreneurial activitiesEntrepreneur/entrepreneurialactivities are considered the de facto for value creation in economies. Evolving knowledge shows that factors responsible for productive entrepreneurship in a region do not occur in isolation, leading to the entrepreneurial ecosystem concept that argues that productive entrepreneurship results from a systemic interaction among various interdependent actors, factors, and institutions. The university, as a knowledge centre, is considered a major catalyst in the entrepreneurial processEntrepreneur/entrepreneurialprocess. Specifically, the university is also a sub-ecosystem that can support/constrain the creation of firms (spinoffs) through the interactive development that takes place among the various elements. In other words, the universityUniversity has what it takes to be an incubator for spinoffs based on the knowledge created through research and development and the systemic interactions among relevant stakeholders. In this chapter, we explore the cases of three thriving entrepreneurial universitiesEntrepreneur/entrepreneurialuniversities: one in Europe, one in Africa, and one in Nigeria. The chapter examines the major actors driving entrepreneurship in these tertiary institutions, the factors supporting or constraining the growth of university-based spinoffs, and the interactions of actors and factors to create a thriving entrepreneurial university. Exploring the three cases provides a wider context for understudying university-based entrepreneurial ecosystems. The implications for emerging university-based entrepreneurial ecosystemsEntrepreneur/entrepreneurialecosystem are discussed.