Title: Collaboration with entrepreneurship education programmes: building spinout capacity at universities

Authors: Peter W. Moroz, Kevin Hindle, Robert Anderson

Addresses: Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Community, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; Syddansk Universitat, Kolding, Denmark. ' Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Community, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; Syddansk Universitat, Kolding, Denmark. ' Faculty of Business Administration, Hill/Levene Schools of Business, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract: As University Spinouts (USOs) have become a highly desirable outcome for commercialisation efforts, the development of entrepreneurial capacity within the university system becomes increasingly more important. We hypothesise that Entrepreneurship Education (EE) programmes ceterus paribus may play a role in developing this capacity. This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of academics who are directly involved in the field of EE programmes with four research goals in mind: 1) to determine whether or not there are perceived advantages to collaboration between EE programmes and technology transfer departments; 2) to identify specific factors that influence these perceptions; 3) to query academics regarding the perceived barriers to collaboration; 4) to identify whether collaborations already exist and categorise them. Our findings suggest that significant advantages from collaboration between these two functions are perceived and that indirect linkages are believed to be more important than direct linkages.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education; higher education; universities; technology transfer; university spinouts; innovation; entrepreneurship education; university collaboration; entrepreneurial capacity; commercialisation; ceterus paribus; linkages; learning; start-ups; spin-offs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2010.031946

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2010 Vol.7 No.3, pp.245 - 273

Published online: 03 Mar 2010 *

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