What is entrepreneurial university and why we need it?

Entrepreneurial answer (proactivity, innovativeness, capacity to assume risk, and managing change) of university is a chance for active participation in development of the society, in which knowledge becomes a right and an obligation for all. Entrepreneurial answer offers a formula for institutional development of university in which university defines and determines its autonomy, ensures diversified financing (and thus decreases its dependence on the state), develops new university departments and activities in accordance with society's demand, and leads to structural changes, which are ensuring better university's capacity in responding to changes. In order for that to be possible, the assumption is that university is unified, but also subsidiary and autonomous, and responsible towards the environment in which it operates. The role of entrepreneurial university is emphasized in the Triple Helix concept of regional development, using current discussion on interconnection and functioning of three forces (actors) in society: university, business sector and government (Blenker et al. 2006; Etzkowitz et.al. 2000; Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000). Integrating discussions about the characteristics of entrepreneurial university stated by various authors (especially Clark 1998 and Gibb 2005) with knowledge on functioning of entrepreneurially oriented organizations (e.g. Lumpkin and Dess 1996), a model of entrepreneurial university is developed (Oberman Peterka, 2008). By comparing the model of entrepreneurial university with situation at the J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, it is concluded that some elements of this model are now present at the university: some of the periphery institutions, there is diversified financing; interdisciplinarity of teaching is manifested through several university interdisciplinary graduate programs; connections between individual elements of the model exist at the Osijek University, as well as some of the connections with value components of the model (autonomy and responsibility of university), but these are insufficiently developed and aren't contributing in the full sense to the development of the model. The goal of this paper is to see whether J.J. Strossmayer University in Osijek is entrepreneurial and what needs to be done in order for it to become entrepreneurial and why it is important to any university with particular focus on this University.