Towards entrepreneurial universities in Spain: Evidence from vice-rectors and KTO directors

Abstract

To its traditional missions of education and research, the entrepreneurial university adds a ‘third mission’: knowledge transfer (KT), which aims to contribute to the economic and social development of the university's environment. To this end, it is the role of government to implement regulations and design policies that push universities to be more entrepreneurial. In addition, an entrepreneurial university should interact with industry and society as a whole and implement a clear strategy—endorsed at the highest level—to incorporate the function of KT. However, there has been a lack of critical reflection in the literature about the ways in which universities implement the strategy, and administrators and coordinators, who play a pivotal role in implementing it, are usually underrepresented in university research. The exploratory research presented here addresses this gap by focussing on the current vice-rectors and KTO directors in charge of implementing KT strategy at Spanish universities. Our findings suggest that the respondents think KT is an objective shared by the government; however, they do not perceive it to be an objective for top and middle managers in universities.