University-based entrepreneurial ecosystem, a smart evolutionary offshoot of entrepreneurship is vastly unexplored in entrepreneurship research. This research employs the grounded theory approach to develop university-based entrepreneurial ecosystem. Beyond quantification and hypothetical falsification, grounded theory, a unique qualitative typology was used to explore and explicate the dimensional differences in modeling an entrepreneurial paradigm for the development of universitybased entrepreneurial ecosystem in the research context. This substantive research involves key universities in the Western part of Nigeria. The finding of this study is a paradigm model with substantive propositions that are empirically grounded in rich respondents’ data. This study concludes that the transformational development of university-based entrepreneurial ecosystem is still relative to the transitive effects of technological diffusion and entrepreneurship psychological ambience. In addition, university-based entrepreneurship ecosystem is in proportion to significant entrepreneurial incentivization and apparent universities’ networks characterization. This research provides a theoretical foundation and enlightenment for policy makers in developing nations, especially in the Western part of Nigeria.
