Governance arrangements for academic entrepreneurship: structures, processes, and mechanisms

Abstract The emergence of the knowledge economy concept in the twentieth century significantly transformed the institutional setting of universities and led to a new mission for universities called academic entrepreneurship. Concurrently, governments increased the pressure on universities to foster entrepreneurial initiatives by reducing their budgets, forcing universities to make substantial changes in their governance to include entrepreneurial activities in their daily operations. Despite ongoing governance changes, universities are still struggling to fully integrate entrepreneurship into their operations. Hence, our study aims to develop a holistic approach and classification for governance arrangements that facilitate academic entrepreneurship. In this regard, by adopting the meta-synthesis method, we meticulously selected and analyzed 54 articles, identifying 7 structures and 4 processes that universities utilize to facilitate entrepreneurship on campus. We then discussed how adopting various governance arrangements promotes specific types of academic entrepreneurship. Theoretically, our research underscores the necessity of a holistic approach to governance arrangements—structures and processes—to foster academic entrepreneurship. It also sheds light on how particular governance arrangements can facilitate specific types of academic entrepreneurship. Additionally, our study probes into less explored areas of governance in the academic entrepreneurship literature, analyzing entrepreneurial activities in universities through a governance lens. Practically, our study suggests that governance arrangements should be aligned with university capabilities to optimally enable academic entrepreneurship. The effectiveness of entrepreneurship within the university depends on the direct or indirect interaction of these structures and the extent to which a particular structure or process is emphasized.