Fostering Entrepreneurship at Universities: Lessons from MIT, IIIT and Utrecht University

Abstract

Universities all across the world are increasingly trying to become more entrepreneurial, in order to stay competitive, generate new sources of income through licensing or contract research, and follow policy guidelines from governments. One of the entrepreneurial activities is the fostering of entrepreneurship among students through entrepreneurship education and incubator services. However, there is no established theory on how to foster entrepreneurship effectively. It is currently not known what offerings should be offered, and how individual offerings contribute to startup success. Through multiple case studies the entrepreneurial offerings at MIT in the United States, IIIT in India, and Utrecht University in the Netherlands are investigated. Additionally, several interviews with entrepreneurs that graduated from these institutes have been performed. This led to important insights in how entrepreneurial offerings contributed to startup success. Several successful examples of entrepreneurial offerings are presented, and a model is proposed that categorizes and visualizes the types of activities that university offerings should support.