As universities consider their future in the 21st century, many are incorporating the concept of “innovation” into their strategic plans.
According to Harvard Business School, innovation is “a new and useful product, service, business model, or strategy.”
By focusing on innovation, universities are positioning themselves as forces of progress – institutions that generate knowledge and apply it to solving the world’s most pressing problems.
But here’s the catch: Few universities have embraced “entrepreneurship” in the same way, even though it’s a critical bridge between innovation and real-world impact.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
It’s easy to see why universities are more open to innovation.
Laboratories, research centers, and academic programs encourage you to push the envelope in a relatively risk-free environment.
Original research is one of the requirements for a PhD, which means that even if innovation never leaves campus, the university feels like a hub of cutting-edge thinking.
But starting a business requires something different: Someone with an idea also needs to understand how to navigate the messy realities of making it a reality.
Entrepreneurship requires skills to manage people and resources, assess viability, identify paths to adoption, embrace uncertainty, and understand the environment while demonstrating resilience in the face of failure and change.
Universities have embraced innovation, but they also need to teach researchers how to be entrepreneurs. Gorodenkov/Getty Images
Fostering entrepreneurship in academia
It’s important to understand the difference between innovation and entrepreneurship: Innovation often begins with assuming no constraints and imagining a world full of possibilities.
But entrepreneurship is premised on scarce resources, and success depends on overcoming obstacles and leveraging what is available. Innovation can happen in isolation, but entrepreneurship requires community, collaboration, feedback, and constant adaptation.
Entrepreneurial skills are valuable for students at all levels and in all disciplines, but the entrepreneurial process is especially useful for researchers and doctoral students who have spent years developing an idea but haven’t figured out how to bring it to life in the real world.
Bridging the gap
Globally, the gap between the number of PhDs and the number of academic jobs is widening.
The programme I am involved in, run by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at Auckland University Business School, teaches people how to identify opportunities and overcome resource constraints through mentoring, workshops and practical projects.
Some find opportunities to commercialize their research, while others pursue policy change or social enterprise.
A great example of this is the doctoral research of Kate Reegl Van West, who investigated the benefits of poi on the health of older adults. With support from the CIE program, she launched SpinPoi, a social venture aimed at using poi to improve health and well-being.
Since its inception, CIE has helped launch over 279 ventures and provides entrepreneurial experience to over 7,500 students and staff across the University each year.
Similar programs exist at other universities, but more needs to be done to expand entrepreneurial skills development within universities.
Overcoming Resistance
Universities have been slow to prioritize developing an entrepreneurial mindset among students and faculty.
Innovation without entrepreneurship is like building a bridge only halfway: you have a great idea, but without the skills to bring it to life, it’s difficult for it to have a meaningful impact. Entrepreneurship transforms creative ideas into valuable, tangible results.
But there are challenges: “innovation” is an easy word to embrace, especially for scholars who equate entrepreneurship with commercialism. To overcome this, it is important to recognize that entrepreneurship is valuable in most endeavors.
Skills like opportunity recognition, resource allocation and risk management are essential in starting a business, but they are also highly valued within established organisations and in leading teams and driving change in any sector.
Faculty and students may think that entrepreneurship is only for those in business or science fields and may not immediately understand how entrepreneurship relates to their field or career aspirations.
However, there is a growing need for entrepreneurial skills to bridge the gap between academic expertise and applied skills for students in all disciplines.
Developing these skills during a PhD program will ensure that your research has a wider impact and create opportunities for you after you graduate.
This is not to say that innovation is useless; it is essential.
Many industries and organizations rely on innovation to improve efficiency, develop new products, and solve complex problems. In some professional situations, an innovation mindset may be more important than an entrepreneurial one.
But to prepare students to truly contribute to solving societal problems and create change, universities must do more than foster innovation: they must prioritize and nurture the entrepreneurial mindset and capabilities among students and faculty to execute, adapt, and create lasting impact.
