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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue about entrepreneurial universities. The paper focuses on the reasons for their importance in global communities.

The literature about entrepreneurial universities is reviewed with a focus on the role of communities, people and places.

Entrepreneurial universities need to consider the people in society in terms of how they relate to learning, education and teaching about new ideas and business practices.

It is important in the increasingly connected global economy that universities be seen as the drivers of the entrepreneurial society, which helps place people at the centre of educational communities.

This paper has suggestions for educational managers and business people interested in connecting with entrepreneurial universities and their place in the society.

This value of this paper is that it includes the main ideas from the special issue in terms of how entrepreneurial universities are fostering a connected society that places people, places and communities at the forefront of the change.

Doctoral students are promising entrepreneurial actors in university-based ventures, which positively impact the external environment and create value for their universities. In this article, the authors extend current research on academic entrepreneurship by shedding light on the role of university support in the early stage of Ph.D. entrepreneurship. Based on social information processing theory, the authors posit that academic entrepreneurship results from the interplay between doctoral students' human capital and university-level support. A multilevel model is proposed and empirically tested to shed light on the cradle of doctoral students' entrepreneurship by explaining the variance of their entrepreneurial alertness and intentions.

A model is proposed that explains the combined effect of specific human capital and different forms of university support on doctoral students' cognitive transition from entrepreneurial alertness to intentions. The model was then tested through structural equation modeling (SEM) and multigroup analysis (MGA) on a sample of 187 doctoral students enrolled in Italian universities.

The SEM results reveal that doctoral students' entrepreneurial alertness is influenced by perceived educational support and human capital. The MGA demonstrates that those who perceive a higher level of support for concept and business development from universities are more likely to convert their alertness into intentions than those who perceive lower support.

The present paper brings to the stage doctoral students as an extremely promising entrepreneurial target. In doing so, it extends academic entrepreneurship studies by detailing how and when the different forms of university support influence their entrepreneurial decisions, along with individual dimensions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate contemporary changes in the education system. In particular, an analysis of the mechanisms of coordination and communication involved in the process can show how different geographical factors with different relational mechanisms may contribute to the creation of a new academic entrepreneurship.

The authors propose a methodology with two-step approach. In the first part of the paper, they use a theoretical approach to carry out a longitudinal study of academic literature on the topics of “entrepreneurial university,” “academic entrepreneurship” and “spin-off organizations.” In the second part, they use cross-database analysis to theorize the main aspects of recent developments in higher education in Italy. To this end, the authors use three public and open-access databases on spin-offs, universities and higher education institutions and incubators in Italy.

First, issues relating to the formation and best practices of entrepreneurial universities are discussed, based on the works of researchers from 25 countries. Second, a hypothesis is put forward to suggest that the organizational model of entrepreneurial university affects microeconomic competitiveness. Third, a case study of Italian spin-off organizations suggests that the number of incubators and spin-offs, and the type of academic knowledge, all directly affect the entrepreneurial university.

This paper aims to examine the role of the university in the modern economic system. The originality of this investigation lies in its ability to offer a picture and first analysis of the main actors and of the entrepreneurial university system.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the microfoundations of student entrepreneurship, a cornerstone of innovation ecosystems. To this end, this paper assesses how perceived university support for entrepreneurship influences entrepreneurial characteristics and intentions in students enrolled at Amazonas and São Paulo State Universities.

A quantitative approach based on multivariate data analysis using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 420 respondents.

Results indicate that the university environment positively influences entrepreneurial behavior and intention in students. Nonetheless, further integration between academia and external dimensions of the ecosystems is necessary to drive more intense entrepreneurial activity in students. The educational contexts of Amazonas and São Paulo present significant differences in the relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial intention with a stronger influence found for Amazonas. This finding suggests a relative lack of propensity of students from São Paulo to engage in entrepreneurial venturing.

The main limitations involve the use of non-probabilistic sampling procedures and students’ heterogeneity in terms of academic seniority.

This research offers guidance for policies targeting the generation of entrepreneurial activity in universities embedded in developing countries’ innovation ecosystems and facing distinct levels of socioeconomic development.

This research presents a novel analysis of the microfoundations driving student entrepreneurship within different educational contexts in a developing country. Results highlight the necessary conditions for universities to foster entrepreneurial activity and, incidentally, feed innovation ecosystems with entrepreneurial talent.

This study aims to explore and analyse the literature, related to the Entrepreneurial University, published in the ISI Web of Science, from 1900 to present. The objectives of this paper are, first, to describe how this field of research is organised in terms of publications, authors and sources (i.e. documents), and, second, to identify the main references cited and ways in which they are grouped (i.e. clusters). In addition, this paper discusses how this literature presents challenges. Namely, from this bibliometric study, what has already been studied and the limits of these studies, as well as the research opportunities for this area, can be understood.

The documents obtained from a search of the ISI Web of Science were subjected to a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer software.

A systematic literature review showed that universities are increasingly dedicated to the commercialisation of knowledge. The results include three clusters: Cluster one – “Entrepreneurial Universities” focuses on changes in the university paradigm; Cluster two – “Academic Entrepreneurship” refers to the commercialisation of knowledge; and Cluster three – “Creation of Technology-Based Companies” focuses on spin-off creation.

By studying the citation profile of documents on the entrepreneurial university, this study has contributed to a better understanding of the flow of production and scientific practices since the beginning of the 21st century. This study also examined research tendencies to identify the emergent areas of this field.

Entrepreneurship education has moved from an elitist view focussing on a start-up and picking-the-winners philosophy towards a broader enterprising behaviour approach; recognising entrepreneurship as an activity of relevance for everybody. The purpose of this paper is to extend this development and identify how university entrepreneurial ecosystems can be expanded to support communities that are under-represented in entrepreneurship.

Based on an integrative literature review (Torraco, 2005), this paper draws together and synthesises literature from the field of entrepreneurship, higher education studies and under-represented communities in an integrated fashion, leading to the development of a new conceptual model.

This paper challenges the traditional role of universities in supporting entrepreneurship as focussing mainly on economic growth and new venture creation, and identifies how universities are also positioned to provide greater civic support to entrepreneurial learning amongst under-represented communities. Through a critical analysis of the literature, the conceptual model proposed identifies six key considerations in the expansion of university entrepreneurial ecosystems for under-represented communities.

There are currently 96.6m people at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the EU (OECD, 2017) and an estimated 43.1m Americans (US Census Bureau, 2017). This paper explores how university entrepreneurial ecosystems can be expanded to support minority and disadvantaged communities who are under-represented in terms of entrepreneurial activity.

Given that there is little research regarding how universities might activate inclusive entrepreneurship initiatives amongst under-represented communities, this paper expands existing knowledge as it identifies the key considerations encompassing university-led community collaborative enterprise support.

The purpose of this paper is to question whether the university entrepreneurial push strategy influences the entrepreneurial intention (EI) of its students. Previous research followed multilevel approaches that jointly addressed the impact of individual characteristics, institutional environment, and educational support on EI. Despite these efforts, the extant literature did not consider differences between universities regarding the whole set of activities they perform to foster entrepreneurship among students and their results.

Through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) procedures, this study compared data from 447 students of two Brazilian universities that differentiate themselves according to entrepreneurial push strategies (one adopts actions consistent with this type of strategy while the other does not). Whilst University 1 fosters entrepreneurship by investing in entrepreneurship courses, promoting entrepreneurship competitions, and offering incubation opportunities, University 2 primarily focuses on traditional managerial education without a specific focus on entrepreneurial activities.

Surprisingly, the results have shown the entrepreneurial push strategy of University 1 does not account for differences in the students’ EI when compared to University 2. Such finding contradicts previous studies on the effects of entrepreneurial education and sheds new lights on the role university’s support plays to foster entrepreneurship intention.

Contributions to the literature on the field of entrepreneurship intention were made by showing that the efforts toward the promotion of entrepreneurship through entrepreneurship education, business plan competitions, and incubation might not have a direct influence on students’ EI.

As a practical implication, the study stimulates universities to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts in promoting entrepreneurship through training, education and support for new ventures. The results also offer policy implications by suggesting that public policies should emphasize the development of institutions that foster a positive business environment, facilitate the creation of new ventures, the funding of start-ups and reinforce the benefits of becoming an entrepreneur.

The results are surprising because they contradict previous studies of the university’s role in fostering entrepreneurship intention. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first research comparing universities with two different approaches toward developing students’ EI: one university with a whole set of activities and another university without any specific activity with that purpose.

The economic impact of scientific research is receiving widespread attention all over the world, with interest being paid to research results that could potentially contribute to economic growth. There have been various policy responses in many African countries to facilitate the nation’s transition from a production-based to an innovation-based economy, especially in the universities. The effort is, however taken for granted that scientists (researchers) are now having academic entrepreneurship mindset. The purpose of this paper is to attempt at developing a model that integrates individual, organisational and institutional determinants of academic entrepreneurship, which can facilitate the ability to cross the “valley of death”.

The paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature to establish the factors that influence the capacity of academic researchers to discover and exploit opportunities for converting knowledge into commercialisable products.

The findings indicate that exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities is driven by the extent of previous collaboration with industry, cognitive integration and prior entrepreneurial experience. Moreover, the university institutional environment must encourage and facilitate the creation of university spin-offs.

The paper and the proposed framework are based on theoretical suppositions related to the determinant factors underlying the formation of academic entrepreneurial intentions. Therefore, an empirical analysis is required to measure each factor proposed in this model.

Considering the present weak national innovation system and university-industry linkages, universities in developing countries will require more than the production of potentially useful knowledge. There is need for conscious efforts by the university administration to put in place mechanisms that will facilitate the commercialisation of knowledge being produced in the university, encourage active participation in designing marketable products, as well as playing a leadership role in ensuring successful commercialisation.

The findings and framework developed in this paper can serve as an input to the design of policies that can stimulate the entrepreneurial activity of the academic researchers so that they can further contribute to technological development and economic growth in African countries.

Majority of the empirical studies on entrepreneurship in developing countries have not attempted to understand the entrepreneurial intention of university academic (researchers). But the current efforts of integrating economic development as an additional function to research and teaching of the universities in developing countries requires that they should operate more entrepreneurially. Therefore, this paper is proposing a framework that might stimulate the creation and development of entrepreneurial university thereby making the university to effectively fulfil its teaching, research and entrepreneurial missions.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the new role that universities are assuming as entrepreneurial entities supporting the development of regional innovation systems through an international comparison, in order to address the demand for global competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to compare how some universities of the Mediterranean area and of South-East Asia conceive and implement an entrepreneurial culture through their curricula, conducting a two-way comparison between Italy and Singapore.

The methodology consists of a multi-method approach, based on a comparative analysis which involves the use of a narrative style and a content analysis carried out on the Italian and Singaporean entrepreneurship programmes. The method consists of comparing different systems with similar characteristics, with an analysis focused on particularly relevant environmental factors, to find an explanation about how an innovative way of teaching entrepreneurship to students can affect the development of regional innovative systems.

The study analyses the Italian and Singaporean environmental factors that are helpful in understanding the basis for the promotion of an entrepreneurial attitude, and the end result of the paper is to set out the differences in the evolvement of entrepreneurial universities and innovative teaching programmes between the two countries being analysed. The research uses an international comparison to investigate the relationships between a set of variables that influence government authorities, leading them to invest in programmes on entrepreneurship.

Studying the Singaporean experience, one of the leading Nation investor in entrepreneurial education, is useful in highlighting limits of less advanced higher education systems and in helping them to encourage an entrepreneurial culture.

The purpose of this paper is to explore issues and situations affecting the entrepreneurial university via frame analysis to determine how institutional members frame the National University of Singapore (NUS) as an entrepreneurial university and provide key insights on how it has been manifested in reality.

Interviews of 18 institutional members from the NUS will be the focus of this paper. Categories of frames were adopted from environmental conflict research. Official documents were also analysed to support the frames found in this study.

Based on the NUS case, the entrepreneurial university was perceived in an apparently ambiguous setup. Interviewees’ framing features the reality affecting the entrepreneurial university in relation to disciplinary identities, institutional configuration, power of important actors and risk perceptions attached to entrepreneurial activities. Issues presented by the case are considered intractable because institutional members have interpretative differences in motivations and interests in pursuing entrepreneurial activities.

Future research can draw upon the factors that contribute to the institutionalisation of the entrepreneurial university model.

The results may assist universities in refining certain approaches in carrying out entrepreneurial activities. Using methods such as frame analysis can enable identification of problems and ways to resolve the issues concerning reforms or policy frameworks introduced to universities.

At the time of this writing, analysing the entrepreneurial university model through the application of frame analysis is novel and yet to be explored in the field of higher education.