High Hopes

Abstract

The regional impact of entrepreneurial universities is a well-researched topic, but less attention is paid to the expectations of the regional policy institutes toward the university. This chapter investigates the regional policy expectations toward the university and what the influence of the university to these expectations is. This study is based on a technological university case in a peripheral region in Finland. The results of the study show that the existence of a single university leads easily to a university-dominant policy and thus to a regional policy lock-in. Consequently, the implementation of the regional policies can be in the hands of the university, leaving other regional stakeholders with a minor role. In order to fully utilize the potential of the university to address the specific regional challenges, the university should not only be seen as a locus of new spin-offs and start-ups, but rather as a producer of qualified graduates and future entrepreneurs.