Abstract:

The universities are large and crucial part of the global economy, which tend to follow the evolution in the societies through modernization and wider collaboration with other stakeholders. In this way, the universities are expanding their responsibilities beyond teaching and research, acting in an innovative and proactive manner. This shift of the role that universities play, from a simple role as educational institutions to a complex role of entrepreneurial ecosystems, has steamed from the knowledge economy and realization of the potential benefits that knowledge has in all aspects of the community.

The importance of the entrepreneurial component of the universities is widely recognized and researched by various scholars and policy-makers. One of the most important initiatives in this respect is the joint initiative by the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for development of comprehensive online guidance and self-assessment tool for HEI (Higher Education Institutions), widely known as HEInnovate. In addition, this initiative provides a guiding framework for policy-making entities to support innovation and entrepreneurship. The aim of the self-assessment tool is facilitation of the analyses based on the institution-wide strategic responses, organised around eight strategic pillars: Leadership and Governance; Organisational Capacity; Entrepreneurial Teaching and Learning; Preparing and Supporting Entrepreneurs; Digital Transformation and Capability; Knowledge Exchange and Collaboration; The Internationalised Institution; and Measuring Impact.

In our research, the HEInnovate tool for investigating the entrepreneurial behaviour of five WB (Western Balkan) universities located in Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina was employed. The HEInnovate survey was conducted with 254 respondents from various role categories, such as: Administrative leader; Dean/Head of School/Faculty; Expert; External stakeholder; Professor/Teacher; Student (Undergraduate – PhD), etc.

The collected dataset was analysed from two perspectives. Firstly, the country-specific and university-specific responses were observed separately and comparatively among different countries. Secondly, the answers were classified according to the role of the respondents, and relevant role-specific findings were brought to light. Of particular interest was the comparison of the behaviours between the most represented internal and external role categories: Professor/Teacher and External stakeholder (businesses, SMEs -Small and Medium Enterprises-, start-ups, spin-offs, entrepreneurs and other companies).

This paper presents the revealed results which outline interesting country-specific and university-specific conclusions that will be base for strategic planning of the commercialization hubs that is foreseen to be established at each university. The utilization of the commercialization hubs at these universities will drive them in establishing overall entrepreneurial framework, not only for imposing the entrepreneurial education, but also for setting the commercialization hubs as pivotal point that relates industry, government and communities to the university for maximal exploitation of the benefits of knowledge and research by the society.

Keywords:

HEInnovate, entrepreneurial universities, entrepreneurship, commercialization, ecosystem.