ABSTRACT

With an increased emphasis on commercializing research, licensing of technology, creating university spin-offs, introducing entrepreneurship programmes, and expanding university–industry relations, universities are being encouraged to take an entrepreneurial turn. We view the entrepreneurial turn as an institutional change, building on Scott (2014) as the term “institution” broadly refers to sets of formalized rules, norms, conventions, and behavioural expectations that determine what is appropriate in a given context. This expanded mission of the universities can also be better understood by integrating the concept of entrepreneurial architecture (Nelles and Vorley, 2010, Nelles and Vorley 2011).The chapter lays out the books’ theoretical framework focusing on (1) What actors and forces are important in motivating institutional change in the development of a university’s entrepreneurial architecture? (2) How do universities interact with institutional context in developing entrepreneurially? Finally, the chapter introduces the reader to universities from different national and regional contexts as a means to learn from in-depth comparative studies of emerging and well-developed entrepreneurial universities across different institutional contexts. Two research questions focus discussion.