Making the whole university entrepreneurial – decades of legitimacy-building through Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This article investigates how more than 25 years of combined entrepreneurial activities have not only developed the third mission of an entrepreneurial university but also improved the first and second missions of education and research. The case, Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, displays how faculty and annual cohorts of student surrogate entrepreneurs taking on university spinoffs, champion pragmatic and moral legitimacy eventually resulting in cognitive legitimacy within the university and beyond. The effects have not only been commercial, making Chalmers University of Technology into a leading European incubation environment, but have also stimulated education and research to become more entrepreneurial. The article introduces an intrapreneurial capability approach to transforming entrepreneurial universities where legitimacy-building over decades around a new entrepreneurial model complements an incrementalist understanding of university development.