Article: Engagement through boundary spanning: insights from US entrepreneurship educators Journal: International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business (IJESB) 2024 Vol.51 No.3 pp.281 - 300 Abstract: This paper examines how the institutional role of entrepreneurship educators influences how they span boundaries and engage students and communities. We examine boundary-spanning behaviours based on four types of orientations among individuals involved in higher education - technical-practical, socio-emotional, community and organizational. We used survey data to identify how entrepreneurship educators at higher education institutions engaged stakeholders before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings suggest that the institutional role appears to correlate with boundary-spanning orientation. Faculty reported involvement in boundary-spanning and engagement activities, albeit to significantly lower degrees than other participants involved in entrepreneurship education and administration. This paper summarizes the results of university engagement and the roles that had emerged in entrepreneurship education just before the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose a model for 21st-century engagement and document entrepreneurship education roles evolving in concert with the needs of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Engagement through boundary spanning: insights from US entrepreneurship educators

Authors: Ethné Swartz; Dianne H.B. Welsh; Norris Krueger; Steven Tello

Addresses: Department of Management, Feliciano School of Business, Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA; Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa ' Bryan School of Business and Economics, University of North Carolina (Greensboro), Greensboro, North Carolina, USA ' QREC, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan; Entrepreneurship Northwest, Boise, ID, USA ' Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, USA

Abstract: This paper examines how the institutional role of entrepreneurship educators influences how they span boundaries and engage students and communities. We examine boundary-spanning behaviours based on four types of orientations among individuals involved in higher education - technical-practical, socio-emotional, community and organizational. We used survey data to identify how entrepreneurship educators at higher education institutions engaged stakeholders before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings suggest that the institutional role appears to correlate with boundary-spanning orientation. Faculty reported involvement in boundary-spanning and engagement activities, albeit to significantly lower degrees than other participants involved in entrepreneurship education and administration. This paper summarizes the results of university engagement and the roles that had emerged in entrepreneurship education just before the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose a model for 21st-century engagement and document entrepreneurship education roles evolving in concert with the needs of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education; academic engagement; university entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial ecosystem; roles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2024.136392

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2024 Vol.51 No.3, pp.281 - 300

Received: 14 Sep 2022
Received in revised form: 25 Aug 2023
Accepted: 25 Aug 2023
Published online: 31 Jan 2024 *

Title: Engagement through boundary spanning: insights from US entrepreneurship educators

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