From technological to social innovation: toward a mission-reorientation of entrepreneurial universities

Abstract

Social innovation has increasingly become an issue of policy and particularly given the policy focus on societal grand challenges. As anchor institutions, the challenge for entrepreneurial universities is to effectively respond and contribute to both technological and social innovation through knowledge and technology transfer. The current conceptualization of entrepreneurial universities is predominately focused on technological innovation. This paper argues for a mission-reorientation of entrepreneurial universities that extends the current technological innovation based conceptualization to incorporate social innovation that effectively addresses environmental and societal challenges and responds to calls in the society for more sustainable and inclusive growth.