Creating the environment for innovation and entrepreneurship

Abstract

Innovation generation and diffusion have been widely acknowledged as hinging upon the complex set of institutional, social and psychological processes. The objective of the paper is to examine the need and possibilities of creating the environment for innovation and entrepreneurship in the university setting. In particular, this paper focuses on interrelationships and roles of specific groups of university members: the administration, faculty and students. The study is exploratory in character, based on observations and literature review. It starts with defining modern-day university as home of innovation emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary and interinstitutional approaches. The paper discusses the need of faculty to learn to reach across the institution and beyond to work with others, working across silos of academia and meeting with others from very different disciplines. Second it examines ways the university administration support can encourage innovation among its faculty, staff and students. Third, it draws on existing research to identify key dimensions of change. The study proposes pathways that may activate the mechanisms of climate and infrastructure for innovation. The proposed dimensions and analyzed areas of change can potentially form the foundations of a framework for universities seeking to diagnose their existing condition and use such findings to enhance the generation and diffusion of innovation. The university quest to break down the barriers and reach across the disciplines to generate innovation takes commitment which needs to be coupled with administrative change such as the reward structures lined up with the vision and changes regarding the teaching and learning practices as well as the physical environment for the classes, the class rooms and meeting spaces of students and faculty.