International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-018-0535-2
Joao Ferreira, Alain Fayolle, Vanessa Ratten and Mario Raposo (Eds) Entrepreneurial Universities: Collaboration, Education, and Policies, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing 2018. 288 pp Amir Emami 1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Entrepreneurial Universities: Collaboration, Education, and Policies is a valuable compilation of summaries on academic entrepreneurship that contribute to research on internationalization of entrepreneurial universities. Generally, the definitions of an entrepreneurial university strongly emphasize the commercialization of innovations and the knowledge produced in universities and research centers (Ratten et al. 2018). This book aims to provide such knowledge mainly from an interdisciplinary perspective with various evidence from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Italy, Malaysia, India, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the UK. This edited book has been structured into 13 chapters. The chapters’ topics cover a broad range of areas on entrepreneurial universities and revolve around three topics of entrepreneurship, training and education; technology entrepreneurship; and entrepreneurial ecosystems in higher education institutes (HEIs). In their introduction, Ferreira, Fayolle, Ratten, and Raposo first give insights on the changing role of entrepreneurial universities and education in the society, and then lay the groundwork for the chapters that follow by defining the book’s core concepts and theories and including its aims and objectives for entrepreneurial universities. Regarding the role of the university-business collaboration in entrepreneurship education programs, Daniel et al. remind us of the importance of deliberate learning for the co-creation of knowledge constructed in the social intercommunication with peers and lecturers. Their contribution in this area includes the introduction of an innovative program, ‘Learning to be.’ It is an entrepreneurial program that aims to instill students with an entrepreneurial mindset through a calibrated approach to taking risks. In the following chapter, Marques et al. discuss entrepreneurial university practices in INTA Faculties (Brazil). They apply both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and find a positive relationship between the development of
* Amir Emami
[email protected]
1
Department of Management, Kharazmi University, Somayyeh St., Tehran, Iran
International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
entrepreneurial activities and the development of entrepreneurship at the local and regional levels. In turn, Schmitz et al. address their concern for innovation and entrepreneurship in the academic setting by using the complex systems approach. Through the fascinating context of the knowledge-based society, they illustrate the potential impact that makes universities contribute to the regional socio-economic development and conserve their viability. Madichie et al. aim at tracing the growth of SME Marketing at a London University, based on its entrepreneurial orientation. In their contribution to this outlet, Wiśniewska and Lewicki assess the competences of young researchers and challenges of doctoral education programs in Poland. In line with the previous chapter, Hofer et al. surveyed how HEInnovate is facilitating change in higher education. HEInnovate is a blueprint that outlines the entrepreneurial and innovative higher education institution through diverse aspects. It then compiles findings from several country reviews, initiated by the OECD and the European Commission. In their study panel of 65 countries regarding the determinants of technology entrepreneurship, Zapata-Huamaní et al. found that entrepreneurial universities can add considerably to the creation of new technology-based firms by linking entrepreneurship education to economic development. Although the university-industry relationship positively impacts technology entrepreneurship, they did not observe this for entrepreneurship education in business schools. Kleine et al. also joined the discussion on the technology entrepreneurship. They evaluated technology entrepreneurship capabilities and how engineering education programs can help promote them. They posit that the integration of science and entrepreneurship education boost technical knowledge and skills of the students, which in turn stimulate entrepreneurship competencies. This chapter is one of my favorite reads in this book. Having graduated from both a business school (my MA) and an engineering faculty (my Ph.D.), I have been always concerned with the need for a useful bridge between these two pedagogically different disciplines for fostering entrepreneurship due to their mutual effect on the knowledge structure. For those that have similar concerns, this chapter would be of particular interest and stimulates practical insights. Le Pontois and Foliard continue the theme of the entrepreneurship education by providing insights into entrepreneurial agility in student teams (focused on team dynamic and leadership distribution) for developing entrepreneurial projects. The chapter concludes by proposing teaching tools to manage more efficient teams, at the individual and collective levels. In turn, the chapter by Seth et al. explicitly touches upon entrepreneurship literature by assessing the impact of entrepreneurial intention and its behavioral beliefs on the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education programs. Battisti et al. explore how the structured innovation ecosystems (e.g., a collaboration between different types of innovation ecosystems) affect the creation of successful businesses. Finally, in their second contribution, the editors present their concluding chapter by providing future suggestions for entrepreneurial universities. It is just as exciting as the chapters that precede it. While there is considerable contextual diversification among the chapters, the book’s chapters nicely stay loyal to the three topics mentioned above. However, regarding the span of topics, they do not concentrate on the specific aspect(s) of each topic (e.g., the nature of entrepreneurial ideas and attitudes in learners and entrepreneurial initiatives in universities, which is a limitation in my opinion). The chapters do not need to be read in
International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
a particular order; a reader could begin with a topic of interest, learn about it, and move on to another topic. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to those working to develop entrepreneurship education curricula, entrepreneurship students, policymakers, and libraries at universities. I hope readers enjoy reading the book as much as I have enjoyed reviewing it.
Reference Ratten, V., Braga, V., & Marques, C. S. (2018). Knowledge, learning and innovation. Cham: Springer.
