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At its essence, entrepreneurship has the potential to empower and to transform. The key to both individual and organizational prosperity in a dynamic, threatening and complex world is the ability to think and act in more entrepreneurial ways. A new wave of economic development is sweeping the world, with entrepreneurship and innovation as the primary catalysts. Within the world of education, it can be argued that the at-risk student is the one not prepared for this entrepreneurial age. While every student has the potential, most lack the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and capabilities that define entrepreneurial competence. Over these past four decades, entrepreneurship has grown within universities faster than virtually any other area of intellectual pursuit. And it appears that the pace is accelerating with more universities seeking to develop programs and centers focused on entrepreneurship. Yet, understanding how to build entrepreneurship programs that empower and transform has remained challenging for some institutions. In this chapter, we investigate the development of entrepreneurship programs in universities. More specifically we contend that they should be created for empowerment and transformation across the campus. We describe some of the most common structural forms, outline the different degree programs, and emphasize the empowering and transforming effects of these programs for all the stakeholders of a university.

In 2004 and 2007, the Kauffman Foundation awarded 18 universities and colleges $3–5 million dollars each to develop radiant model entrepreneurship education programs and campus-wide entrepreneurial ecosystems. Grant recipients were required to have a senior level administrator to oversee the program who reported to the Provost, President, or Chancellor. Award recipients included Syracuse University (2007) and the University of Rochester (2004). Cornell was not a Kauffman campus. This chapter explores three case studies in the radiant model of university-wide entrepreneurship education as deployed at Cornell University, The University of Rochester, and Syracuse University. The authors examine the history, accelerators, and challenges of the radiant model of university-wide entrepreneurship education.

Entrepreneurship has been widely recognized as having greatly influenced the United States. Its influence has especially been documented over the past 20 years. Paralleling our societal interest in entrepreneurship has been increasing interest in entrepreneurship education. While our interest in entrepreneurship education has grown considerably over the past two decades, this field of study continues to have critics both within and outside of schools and colleges of business (Kuratko 2004). In spite of these criticisms, some researchers suggest that the United States is still far ahead of other regions of the world in terms of entrepreneurial education (Solomon et al. 1998).

Using entrepreneurship education in the United States as a point of departure, this article uses a case study to analyze the efforts of a private university in Bogota, Colombia, to create a new program in entrepreneurship. The Colombian Legislature passed Law 590 in July 2000 as a means to promote and develop entrepreneurship in the nation. Shortly thereafter a private university in Bogota started a new program in entrepreneurship. At the university's invitation, a small number of faculty from U.S. universities participated in the school's “kick-off” efforts. The paper offers analysis and recommendations based on five criteria: 1) What is taught, 2) Why it is taught, 3) How it is taught, 4) How well it works, and 5) Leadership support. In addition, rather than simply adopting a U.S. or European model of entrepreneurship education, the authors propose that they should develop a center that integrates lessons from other models with elements that are relevant to the local situation.

This chapter examines the key characteristics of success of the university-wide entrepreneurial ecosystem at Syracuse University. From 2007 to 2012, Syracuse University developed an academic signature in entrepreneurship, innovation, and community engagement resulting from 165 programs that linked the campus and the community. Nine critical factors of success for individual programs were observed. This chapter provides recommendations for establishing an experientially focused university-wide entrepreneurship education program and suggestions on mistakes to avoid.

This paper investigates empirically the link between entrepreneurship education programs and students’ entrepreneurial behavior, with a particular focus on the distinction between experiential and classroom-based education. We introduce a more refined measure of entrepreneurial engagement that combines entrepreneurship intention and actual steps taken to realize that intention. Using data from a survey of 836 students at the National University of Singapore (NUS), we utilize linear regression models to examine not only the direct effect of entrepreneurship education program participation on entrepreneurial engagement, but also its possible interaction effect with several psychological constructs drawn from the Theory of Planned Behavior. The results show that participation in university entrepreneurship programs, especially experiential-learning programs, has significant positive influence on students’ entrepreneurial engagement. Moreover, the effect of program participation is significantly moderated by the students’ attitudes and perceptions. The findings have important practical implications for universities in designing entrepreneurship programs on campus. The study supports the call to move toward hands-on experiential programs as a more effective way for educational institutions to influence students’ entrepreneurial behavior and encourage venture creation activity on campus. We also contribute to the literature by confirming the impact of entrepreneurship education not only on entrepreneurial intentions but also on the concrete steps taken by students toward venture creation.

The commercialization of research produced by universities constitutes a core facet of academic entrepreneurship (AE). Academic literature reveals the need to shed light on entrepreneurial processes in higher education institutions (HEIs). This study intends to fill this gap by researching the mechanisms for facilitating AE and the variables that can moderate the relationship between such mechanisms and AE in Portuguese HEIs.

Our research model aims to assess the mechanisms of academic entrepreneurship (AE) within a sample of 125 Portuguese public higher education institutions (HEIs). To test our research hypotheses, we employed a structural equation model (SEM) using the partial least squares (PLS) method. Additionally, our evaluation examines the potential moderating effects of incubator programs, support initiatives, and proof-of-concept programs (PoCs). Our research model seeks to evaluate the mechanisms for facilitating AE and explore the effects of including incubator programs, support initiatives, and PoCs as moderators. The seven variables (Research mobilization, Unconventionality, Industry collaboration, University policies, Incubator programs and support initiatives, Proof-of-concept programs, and academic entrepreneurship) were measured using a 7-point Likert scale.

The results revealed that different drivers of AE influence the creation and development of entrepreneurial activities. Our findings also show the moderating effects of incubator programs, support initiatives, and proof-of-concept programs on AE. We find that incubator programs, other support initiatives, and PoCs maintain a moderating effect on AE and benefit their respective HEIs.

The study examines only the Portuguese HEI context. Therefore, generalizing these results necessitates reservations. However, the responses came from various actors in HEIs, from different academic backgrounds and research interests. This makes the results more generalizable. Limitations are evident in external validity, given that we gathered the data over a relatively short period.

Observed factors are explored to gain a deeper understanding of their influence on the mechanisms of AE. The implications arise from the new perspective presented and the methodology used to identify mechanisms capable of fostering AE. We hope this research will encourage other researchers to study this topic further.

the engagement of universities at the global level should be emphasised in future policy. While universities in innovation systems often have a local focus, their engagement in innovation ecosystems transcends the boundaries of geographic locations.

PoCs had a significant positive moderating effect on the impact of research mobilization and university policies on AE. Thus, we find interactions between universities and industry boost AE. This study demonstrates how AE benefits HEIs by extending orientation towards mobilizing research, unconventional approaches, cooperation with industry, and university policy implementation. We thus advocate a new approach, demonstrating the influence that the mobility of research, unconventionality, industry collaboration, and university policies hold over AE.

There has been an ongoing debate regarding where a university should house entrepreneurship programs. Should they be in the business school, at the central administration level, or housed in another college such as engineering? Many argue that the entrepreneurship programs should be housed where the best ideas come from (i.e., engineering, computer science, or biosciences). Others strongly argue on traditional lines that entrepreneurship involves essential business tools so the programs need to be housed there. This chapter asserts that the debate over location is moot in regards to how to more effectively launch start-ups and create entrepreneurial talent. For a university to be effective, it needs to build an ecosystem that integrates programs, people, and ideas from across the campus and avoid the traditional silos that schools and colleges create. A model for this from the University of Missouri-Kansas City is used to illustrate an effective university entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how university-based entrepreneurship programs, incorporating real-life venture creation into educational design and delivery, can bridge the gap between entrepreneurship education and technology transfer within the university environment.

Based on a literature review and snowball sampling over a two-year period, 18 entrepreneurship education programs were identified as applying a venture creation approach. Ten of these programs were selected for case study, including direct interviews and participatory observation during a two-day workshop. Empirical findings were iteratively related to theory within entrepreneurship education and technology transfer.

The paper identifies the bridging capabilities of venture creation programs (VCP) across five core themes, illustrating the potential benefits of closer collaboration between entrepreneurship education and technology transfer in a university environment.

A definition for “VCP” is tested empirically. These programs are shown to be sophisticated laboratory environments, allowing for clinical research towards the understanding of entrepreneurship and technology transfer processes.

Findings identify practical benefits of combining entrepreneurship education and technology transfer activities, such as increased value creation through not only new firms, but also an entrepreneurially equipped graduate population. VCPs allow for “spin-through” of innovative ideas in the university environment, while simultaneously contributing to entrepreneurial learning.

This paper presents findings from the first multiple case study into entrepreneurship education specifically designed to develop real-life venture as part of the core curriculum. Findings provide basis for investigating the value of integrating entrepreneurship education and technology transfer at the university.

The paper aims to contributes on the debates about University Idea Incubation by investigating the role and the engagement of different University's stakeholders in the process of opportunity recognition in an entrepreneurship education program targeted at students with an interdisciplinary background.

Through a longitudinal case study methodology, the Contamination Lab at University of Salento (Lecce, Italy), the learning approaches and the knowledge process to create an entrepreneurial awareness, mindset and capability in students with different educational background are presented.

The findings demonstrates the crucial role of stakeholders' engagement for business idea presentation, open innovation challenge, contamination workshop on specialized topics, enterprise projects are important vehicle for effective students' business ideas and innovative projects development in a multidisciplinary environment. The close interaction among students, academia, companies and institutions creates a favourable environment that enables opportunity identification, idea generation through a deep contamination of knowledge, skills and experiences.

Limitations include the need to generalise the results even if this limitation is typical of the case study methodology. Other research is necessary for an in-depth analysis in deep of the other Contamination Lab in Italy and to derive the “invariance traits” of this environment according to the features of the local entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Implications for practices include recommendations for designing innovative programs where the interactions between University-Institutions-Industry are realized.

A conceptual framework is proposed by defining all the entrepreneurial knowledge process and knowledge creation within the Contamination Lab, highlighting the contribution of the stakeholders in each phase and learning initiative of the program.

Over the past 30 years, enrollment in entrepreneurship programming within community colleges has grown substantially. The two-year context poses unique challenges and opportunities for studying entrepreneurship, and the purpose of this paper is to use a narrative review approach to consider the vitality of entrepreneurship education in the community college system. This research captures and reflects key findings from the field and illuminates the current state of scholarship on entrepreneurship education in community colleges. Four key areas are highlighted that describe the primarily challenges and distinctiveness of entrepreneurship education in the community college setting: curricular effectiveness, emphasis, degree and non-degree programs. The general framework that emerges from this narrative review helps to identify gaps in the literature and provides a focal point for future studies.

A structured literature review methodology (Armitage and Keeble-Allen, 2008) was chosen for this study as the state of literature in the specific area of interest did not present general groupings of topics or activities. Given this lack of categorical clarity, the design was specifically focused on bringing together key groupings to provide a framework for further study. The specific methodology adopted standard SLR techniques in terms of article selection, choice and organization. No pre-conceived groupings were used as part of organization of information. The goal was to allow the disparate studies fall into natural categories as greater review and organization continued.

During the authors’ review and analysis of the extant literature, four focal areas emerge that appear to create a general framework for explaining the important matters in community college entrepreneurial education. Those areas are: overall effectiveness, education emphasis, non-credit educational programs, and for-credit educational programs. The following discussion offers a starting point for future investigation. Figure 2 presents this paper’s advocacy arguments and a full literature review follows this initial framework.

Entrepreneurship programs in universities have grown significantly over the last 30 years (Heriot and Simpson, 2007). In the early 1980s, approximately 300 schools had entrepreneurship and small business programs. By the 1990s, that number had increased to 1,050 schools and signaled the beginnings of rapid entrepreneurial education expansion (Solomon et al., 1994). By the early 2000s, entrepreneurship education had exploded to more than 1,600 schools offering over 2,200 courses including journals and mainstream trade publications as well as special issues devoted solely to entrepreneurship (Katz, 2003; in Kuratko, 2005). This growth trend has been mirrored in community colleges (DoBell and Ingle, 2009). Despite that growth, scholarship regarding entrepreneurship education in community colleges has been described as a “wild west” (Truit, 2017) highlighted by little communication or sharing of experiences or cooperative activities beyond limited partnerships both inside or outside of the community college. Existing studies tend to be scattered and practitioner-written while academic articles are often theoretical, focused more on entrepreneurial education in four-year universities and at times promote underspecified models of challenges community colleges face. Given the dearth of scholarly work in the domain, this review attempts to form a comprehensive classification of extant work in order to stimulate and direct future research in this domain. The goal is to provide a current “state of the literature” of entrepreneurial education in community colleges that shares findings, suggests potential areas of inquiry, and helps to structure research arguments. To accomplish this, in the spirit of Hammersley (2001) and Harvey and Moeller (2009), we present a descriptive, narrative review of entrepreneurship education in community colleges in order to gain a better understanding of its complexities.