University entrepreneurial performance: A Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Abstract

As key players in innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, Higher Education Institutions (HEI) assume a position as catalysts in creating and disseminating knowledge with repercussions in the societal, economic, political and innovation environments. In this scenario, HEI are facing the need to balance the performance of their traditional missions—teaching and research—with the pursuit of entrepreneurial performance. This brings awareness of the need to pay particular attention to HEI entrepreneurial performance (HEIEP) and how to measure it. Based on HEInnovate, a self-assessment tool resulting from a joint effort of the European Community and the OECD, this study aims to explore the benefits of university entrepreneurial metrics, analysing HEIEP as a discriminant function of the HEInnovate dimensions complemented with a qualitative approach using Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The analysis provides valuable details, presenting recipes based on the HEInnovate dimensions or combinations of dimensions to achieve a mission legitimation. This research brings awareness to the use of the HEInnovate scale, where it is possible to highlight the importance of the digital transformation and capability dimension to entrepreneurial performance (EP) and university mission legitimation.