Marketing-making a difference for entrepreneurial universities

Abstract

In the knowledge economy, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are facing increasingly competitive environments. On the one side knowledge is now produced in a variety of organisations, so therefore universities are no longer the only producers or sources of knowledge. Universities are also competing with other education providers due to the growing offers of commercial education providers with a strong vocational dimension, and the emergence of new technologies in the higher education market offering virtual programs (Ferreira et al. 2007). Against this background HEIs are now operating in markets where it is imperative for them to make usage of marketing instruments if they want to succeed and remain sustainable. In this vein, the two core activities of HEIs, research and education, are addressing different markets and target groups. Consequently HEIs need to apply marketing, its toolbox and instruments to be successful in those markets, and they need to be entrepreneurial to access them. In this paper the markets for research in HEIs are examined more closely. The paper describes the particularities of a Marketing approach for science and recommends a comprehensive “Science-to-Business Marketing” approach, exhibiting and combining knowledge from different Marketing disciplines.