Mats Benner
Professor
Doomed to be Entrepreneurial: Institutional Transformation or Institutional Lock-Ins of 'New' Universities?
Author
Summary, in English
Universities worldwide are facing enormous strains as a result of increased external expectations where global visibility should be mixed with local and regional utility. In debates on the future of higher education, becoming an entrepreneurial university has been highlighted as a novel - although perhaps a more hybrid - way to deal with this challenge. However, while the label entrepreneurial points to an image of the university as a dynamic free agent shaped in the interplay between dynamic environments and internal flexibility, the current article takes a more critical view on the factors conditioning universities with the ambitions of becoming more entrepreneurial - particularly those of more recent age and less academic standing. For these institutions it is suggested that the university ideal of being entrepreneurial may lead to a situation of strategic inertia characterized by an institutionalized 'lock-in' with few alternative development paths.
Department/s
- Research Policy Institute (RPI)
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
399-416
Publication/Series
Minerva
Volume
51
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Springer
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Keywords
- Entrepreneurial
- University
- Strategy
- Higher education
- Institutional
- profile
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1573-1871