Assessing the impact of academic assets on innovation and entrepreneurship: an application of DEA to Turkish universities

Purpose This study aims to investigate how the classical academic resources of universities contribute to their innovation and entrepreneurship performance. Academic inputs such as the total number of academic publishing, citation scores, scientific documents, number of PhD studies and faculty-to-student ratios are used for this analysis. The criteria used for innovation and entrepreneurship rating are competence in scientific and technological research, intellectual property pool, cooperation and interaction and economic contribution and commercialization. Design/methodology/approach Two ranking systems for Turkish universities are used in this study. Academic performance (URAP) is used as input, and entrepreneurial performance (TUBITAK) is the output. A sample of 48 Turkish universities (32 public universities and 16 private universities) is evaluated via data envelopment analysis (DEA). Findings The results of the DEA show that 23% of the selected universities are fully efficient, while 62% are partially efficient – of which 81.7% are public universities and 44% are private universities. Furthermore, the study’s slack analysis of outputs indicates that although the academic performance of the selected universities is relatively high, these universities have difficulty converting the outcomes of their academic studies into real-life socioeconomic applications. Originality/value The goal of higher education institutions has traditionally been purely academic, focusing on teaching and scientific research. However, contemporary universities are expected to consistently focus on innovation and entrepreneurship in addition to their traditional roles of teaching and research. This study examines the relationship between classical academic resources and the contemporary entrepreneurial aspect of the universities in a sample of 48 Turkish universities. Two well-established university ranking systems are used to evaluate performance and efficiency, constituting a novel contribution to the academic entrepreneurship field.