The Entrepreneurial University Revisited: Conflicts and the Importance of Role Separation

• Published in: Social epistemology Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 41 - 54
• Main Author: Vestergaard, Jakob
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.01.2007
• Subjects: Commercialisation of Research; Commercialization; Conflicts; Entrepreneurship; Finland; Medical Research; Public Sector Private Sector Relations; Research Ethics; Researchers; Role Conflict; Role Separation; Tenure; The Entrepreneurial University; Universities
• ISSN: 0269-1728; 1464-5297
• DOI: 10.1080/02691720601125498

On the basis of a recent in-depth case study of the severe conflicts that arose in relation to the process of forming a spin-off biotech company at Helsinki University, Juha Tuunainen argued that "the traditional university is not being transformed into an entrepreneurial one as straightforwardly as claimed by Henry Etzkowitz" and that it remains an open question whether "hybrid entities" combining academic work and corporate activity can "ever survive as stable organizations within a university" (2005, 202, 203). The present paper offers a reinterpretation of Tuunainen's study, identifying the inadequate separation of researcher and entrepreneur roles as the crux of the conflicts. Most importantly, however, this reinterpretation enables the conceptualisation of a model for university governance that maintains role separation while at the same time promoting an acceleration of university entrepreneurship and commercialisation by integrating it in the very core of the university institution.