Re-viewing the entrepreneurial university: strategic challenges and theory building opportunities

Influenced by the neo-liberal economic perspective, in which universities are evaluated based on their contribution to society, the term “Entrepreneurial University” (EU) emerged in the early 1980s. The entrepreneurial university has evolved as a “natural” incubator supporting entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability in the university community (e.g., students, alumni, staff, and academics) and beyond civic engagement. Over the last four decades, academic debates on why and how higher education organizations could play this key role have become increasingly important in the business and management literature. It has motivated several special issues published in multidisciplinary academic journals, literature reviews, and theoretical-empirical contributions. However, there is a defragmentation of the literature given the unique nature of each entrepreneurial university during the current decade and the forced transformation of entrepreneurial organizations due to new (technological and health) paradigms. Therefore, this new decade opens the door for re-viewing the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence of entrepreneurial universities. Inspired by these universities’ challenges, this special issue represented a unique opportunity to build a novel theory that provides an updated theoretical view of the entrepreneurial university phenomenon (e.g., re-conceptualization, re-view missions, re-view business models, re-view metrics), as well as to offer new insights about how the new paradigms have transformed core entrepreneurial university activities (education, research, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship), strategies, and interconnectedness with ecosystems. This introductory paper encouraged an in-depth multidisciplinary conversation within the management and related research community from different socio-economic settings to make theoretical and empirical contributions. As a result, six papers have contributed to this special issue and provide several implications for different stakeholders. Plain English Summary Over the last four decades, academic debates on why and how higher education organizations could play this key role have become increasingly important in the business and management literature. It has motivated several special issues published in multidisciplinary academic journals, literature reviews, and theoretical-empirical contributions. However, there is a defragmentation of the literature given the unique nature of each entrepreneurial university during the current decade and the forced transformation of entrepreneurial organizations due to new (technological and health) paradigms. Therefore, this new decade opens the door for re-viewing the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence of entrepreneurial universities. Inspired by these universities’ challenges, this special issue represented a unique opportunity to build a novel theory that provides an updated theoretical view of the entrepreneurial university phenomenon.