Activities of Entrepreneurial Universities

Abstract

The literature on the role and activities of the entrepreneurial university is very large but also too fragmented to give a coherent and unambiguous theory regarding the entrepreneurial activities of universities. For example, an analysis of 173 papers on the entrepreneurial university (Rothaermel et al. 2007) grouped the topics relating to entrepreneurship at universities in four main categories: (1) entrepreneurial university research, (2) technology transfer office activities, (3) new enterprise creation, and (4) the entrepreneurial context, including the innovation network. Thus the entrepreneurial activities of universities can only be tentatively systematized, for example, as follows:

• 1. Cooperative research projects

• 2. Commercialization of research results through intellectual property rights, that is, patents and licenses

• 3. Establishment of spin-off companies or academic entrepreneurship

• 4. Establishment of innovation and technological infrastructure for cooperation between science and industry, such as the following:

  • University research and technology parks;

  • University offices for technology transfer;