Abstract:

Many higher education institutions (HEIs) have come to believe that successful graduates represent the pinnacle of success. The institution’s focus on graduate employability may inadvertently suppress entrepreneurial behavior in its graduates. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this paradox and argue that the institutional successes in graduate employability may inhibit entrepreneurial behavior in graduates.

This paper focus on one leading European data science and information management school showcasing exceptional levels of graduate employment and partnerships with both private and public sector organizations. In spite of these very positive conditions, however, there appear to be very few start-ups formed by graduates from the school. It appears that the problem lies in the design of the institutional governance structure of the school rather than a lack of entrepreneurial initiatives. When the curriculum, partnerships, incentives, and performance metrics for students are all primarily focused on preparing students to supply talent to existing organizations, then student expectations and career development are shaped toward employment rather than starting ventures.

In order to help resolve this challenge, the paper presents a design-thinking based framework for designing entrepreneurial governance that includes three phases: Inspire, Ideate, and Implement. The first phase, Inspire, involves using self-assessment and stakeholder analysis to identify the contradictions between the school's rhetorical commitments to innovation and its actual entrepreneurial outcomes. The second phase, Ideate, identifies how governance structures, curricula, and incentives can be re-designed to encourage the formation of ventures while still providing students with the opportunity to pursue employment in traditional ways. The third phase, Implement, involves transforming entrepreneurship into an embedded part of the school's operations by establishing venture pipelines, creating new performance metrics, and increasing ties to entrepreneurial ecosystems.

The proposed framework represents entrepreneurship in universities as a systemic design challenge rather than solely as an educational intervention. The paper also asserts that entrepreneurship cannot be successfully taught without corresponding systemic entrepreneurial governance structures. Therefore, by synchronizing strategy, incentives, partnerships, and learning environments, universities can convert successful graduate employment outcomes into increased entrepreneurial activity in the regions in which they are located and contribute more effectively to regional innovation ecosystems.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurial University, Entrepreneurial Governance, Design Thinking, Graduate Employability, Academic Entrepreneurship, Innovation Ecosystems.