Edu-business within the Triple Helix. Value production through assetization of educational research

Abstract

Growing demands on evidence-based teaching, combined with increasing business involve-ment, constitute a transformation of education in which research and research collaborations have become commodities and selling points for companies. This article, building on interviews with 30 Swedish edupreneurs, explores how the discursive trope of the Triple Helix organises collaborations between the business sector, research, and school. In what ways do people in edu-business use research and research collaborations and what kinds of values do they expect to produce through different practices? The study identifies five approaches to research–philanthropists, influencers, ambassadors, brokers, and engineers–and describe the edupreneurs’ manifold ways of using, relating to, and translating research into sellable products. Using the theoretical lens of assetization, we show how different values are produced: (1) economic–strengthening the company’s brand; (2) pedagogical–changing teaching practices; (3) political–lobbying for policy change and changing public conversations; (4) academic–defining useful research and funding research, and (5) social–building networks. We conclude that the striving for Triple Helix collaborations preserves the entrepreneurial right to define useful research and providing legitimacy through the power of research, an important asset on the edu-market.