The Entrepreneurial University Revisited: Conflicts and the Importance of Role Separation

Abstract

On the basis of a recent in‐depth case study of the severe conflicts that arose in relation to the process of forming a spin‐off biotech company at Helsinki University, Juha Tuunainen argued that “the traditional university is not being transformed into an entrepreneurial one as straightforwardly as claimed by Henry Etzkowitz” and that it remains an open question whether “hybrid entities” combining academic work and corporate activity can “ever survive as stable organizations within a university” (2005, 202, 203). The present paper offers a reinterpretation of Tuunainen’s study, identifying the inadequate separation of researcher and entrepreneur roles as the crux of the conflicts. Most importantly, however, this reinterpretation enables the conceptualisation of a model for university governance that maintains role separation while at the same time promoting an acceleration of university entrepreneurship and commercialisation by integrating it in the very core of the university institution.

Keywords:

• The Entrepreneurial University
• Commercialisation of Research
• Conflicts
• Role Separation
• Tenure

Acknowledgements

Previous versions of this paper were presented at the “5th Winter Workshop on Philosophy and Economics”, April 2005, in Madrid, and at the “Triple Helix Conference”, May 2005, in Turin. Comments on earlier versions of the paper from Thomas Basbøll, Nicolai Foss, Camilla Kvist, Tobias Lindeberg, Steen Vallentin and an anonymous reviewer are gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

[1] The case study constitutes the core of Tuunainen’s PhD research, published in full length in Tuunainen (2004).

[2] For more information on INSAT and INEX, see their respective web‐sites: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/insat/, and http://www.inex.org.uk/default.asp.

[3] For analysis of conflicts and tensions in relation to industry‐science collaborations and the formation of spin‐off companies in the UK see Rappert and Webster (1997) and Senker (1990).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jakob Vestergaard

Jakob Vestergaard’s work includes contract research for the World Bank and the OECD on policies promoting university interaction with industry in Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Malaysia, Sweden and the UK. He has recently completed his doctoral research at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.