Entrepreneurial universities’ metamorphosis: Encountering technological and emotional disruptions in the COVID-19 ERA

Abstract

Entrepreneurial universities (EU) have received much attention over the last few years. Although the well-articulated contributions in the literature, empirical evidence substantiating the EU's disruptive responses in challenging times is scarce (e.g., crises, natural disasters, pandemics, Belic conflicts, or wars). This study theorizes the EU's metamorphosis due to technological/emotional disruptions to respond to evolving COVID-19 stakeholders' needs. We design a two-step qualitative methodological design in twenty well-representative EUs across the globe by adopting a mixed theoretical approach. Our findings shed some light on two relevant insights: (a) how the EU disruptively re-oriented the core activities to respond to the stakeholders' needs during a shake-out event (the COVID-19 pandemic); and (b) how a disruptive shake-out event (the COVID-19 pandemic) re-stimulates an EU structural and identity metamorphosis. A proposed theoretical framework extends previous studies on understanding how the EU's metamorphosis could occur due to an external shake-out event. A provoking discussion and implications for theory, practice, and policymakers emerge from our findings.