University Spaces for Entrepreneurship: A Process Model

Abstract

This paper explores trends in entrepreneurship spaces developed by universities to support entrepreneurship education. It identifies characteristics that make a space conducive to innovation and explains whether current spaces adequately conform to those characteristics. More generally, this paper seeks to clarify what is being built, for which purposes, and with what results. Given the novelty of this research, the paper uses a multiple-method approach to allow for an iterative examination between theory and data. Multiple data and methods were used, including an action research method, a systematic survey of 57 entrepreneurship spaces at U.S. universities, and a thematic and content analyses of interviews carried out with individuals directly involved in the functioning of such spaces. The paper presents a prescriptive model aimed at guiding the practitioner in the design of an entrepreneurship space. It identifies five types of entrepreneurship spaces that differentially support entrepreneurial activities and rely on different characteristics. These characteristics are centrally important for innovation and entrepreneurship spaces. There are a number of practical implications from the work. It identifies key challenges in the design of entrepreneurship spaces and shows which questions to consider in the decision-making process. The paper advances research on entrepreneurship spaces, an important yet poorly understood phenomenon. It reviews and introduces the literature on how space can support innovation, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial ‘spirit’, and proposes a typology of entrepreneurship spaces, providing a path towards more robust and comprehensive theory building.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship spaces, innovation spaces, co-working

JEL Classification: M13, Q32, I23