Exploring Intrapreneurial Activities in the Context of the Entrepreneurial University: An analysis of five EU HEIs

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are actively encouraged to strive toward entrepreneurial university status to enable them to deliver their third mission and create entrepreneurial graduates. To achieve these goals, HEIs engage in a wide range of entrepreneurial activities. In this paper, we posit that many of these activities could be categorized as intrapreneurship rather than entrepreneurship. We further posit that considerable benefit may be garnered by focusing on intrapreneurial activities if universities and HEIs are to progress and sustain their entrepreneurial university status. Our research focus is driven by assumption-challenging because, to date, scholarship has tended to attribute entrepreneurial university success solely to entrepreneurial activities, largely neglecting the intrapreneurial behaviours that drive them. Our core research question asks: What activities do HEIs engage in as part of their entrepreneurial university journey, and which of these could be categorized as intrapreneurial rather than entrepreneurial? We draw on a unique data set and adopt an in-depth, qualitative approach to critically examine the entrepreneurial activities of five HEIs in Finland, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain to highlight their intrapreneurial dimensions. Our findings make three important contributions: First, we enhance understanding of the nature and scope of the activities in which HEIs engage as part of their entrepreneurial university journey; second, we offer an analytical framework to highlight the intrapreneurial dimensions of activities traditionally deemed to be entrepreneurial; third, we signpost scholars toward promising avenues of future research in the context of intrapreneurship and the entrepreneurial university.