An Entrepreneurial University and its Socio-economical Context

The purpose of this paper is to understand how the global template of 'entrepreneurial university' has been translated and made an imprint in the universities from two different socio-economic contexts. The paper largely builds on institutionalism and the varieties of capitalism approaches. Based on the study of two self-proclaimed 'entrepreneurial' universities in the U.S., and the Netherlands, the study sheds light on how the common template is adopted, what are the main variations in terms of the tensions to balance the exploration and exploitation activities within these universities and what are the reasons behind the possible convergence or divergence of local imprints. The empirical base of the study consists of sixteen semi-structured interviews, national and institutional policy document analysis as well as statistics. Besides shedding light on how the global template is translated into the local settings in two national socio-economic contexts the study will clarify the role of path-dependence in adopting global practices in different institutional contexts and identify what glocal configurations of 'entrepreneurial' universities may be created in different socio-economic contexts.