Framing the entrepreneurial university: the case of the National University of Singapore
Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies
ISSN: 2053-4604
Article publication date: 6 June 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore issues and situations affecting the entrepreneurial university via frame analysis to determine how institutional members frame the National University of Singapore (NUS) as an entrepreneurial university and provide key insights on how it has been manifested in reality.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews of 18 institutional members from the NUS will be the focus of this paper. Categories of frames were adopted from environmental conflict research. Official documents were also analysed to support the frames found in this study.
Findings
Based on the NUS case, the entrepreneurial university was perceived in an apparently ambiguous setup. Interviewees’ framing features the reality affecting the entrepreneurial university in relation to disciplinary identities, institutional configuration, power of important actors and risk perceptions attached to entrepreneurial activities. Issues presented by the case are considered intractable because institutional members have interpretative differences in motivations and interests in pursuing entrepreneurial activities.
Research limitations/implications
Future research can draw upon the factors that contribute to the institutionalisation of the entrepreneurial university model.
Practical Implications
The results may assist universities in refining certain approaches in carrying out entrepreneurial activities. Using methods such as frame analysis can enable identification of problems and ways to resolve the issues concerning reforms or policy frameworks introduced to universities.
Originality/value
At the time of this writing, analysing the entrepreneurial university model through the application of frame analysis is novel and yet to be explored in the field of higher education.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The University of Tampere’s School of Management and the Higher Education Administration Management and Economics (HEAME) Doctoral Programme funded the fieldwork in Singapore. In addition, travel grant was provided for presenting this study to the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers’ (CHER) 28th Annual Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Professor Deborah Shmueli from University of Haifa, Israel, shared her insights on frame analysis.
Citation
Reyes, C.N. (2016), "Framing the entrepreneurial university: the case of the National University of Singapore", Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 134-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-09-2015-0046
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited