Change Strategies for the Entrepreneurial University: Towards a Contextualized Understanding

Abstract

To advance entrepreneurial activities within higher education institutions, many countries have promoted an institutional transition towards the entrepreneurial university model. Despite aboundant efforts to unify the concept of entrepreneurship with higher education, the organizational implementation and change process towards becoming an entrepreneurial institution remain a major challenge in both theory and practice. This chapter offers an integrative review of the change strategies related to the effort to transform a university into an entrepreneurial university. The chapter presents the case of a classic institution undergoing change in order to zoom in on theory development related to becoming an entrepreneurial university. Finally, the chapter discusses the strategic efforts of organizational change towards becoming entrepreneurial universities in comparison with the contemporary institutional theory related to change processes.