A State of Victoria, Australia, report asserts that concept of the entrepreneurial
university in Australia has “never been taken seriously” and had been “found to
be lacking in validity” (State of Victoria, 2010, p. 83). This is a curious
statement given that dozens of eminent research universities outside of Australia
have adopted this strategic approach. This article reviews of the field of
‘university entrepreneurship’ with emphasis on the concept of ‘Triple Helix’. It
takes as its case study the nine universities in the State of Victoria. In what
sense are Victorian universities entrepreneurial? What are the key facilitators
and barriers to becoming a more entrepreneurial university? Which elements of
an ‘entrepreneurship ecosystems’ do these universities possess? The basic
approach of the study is hermeneutic in that it relies on the interpretation of
sense-making, the process by which people give meaning to experience. We take
as our case study twenty-seven respondents in nine universities within the State
of Victoria, Australia. The literature review led to the choice of three
instruments previously used and validated. My findings show that Victorian
universities, if they identify with the concept of entrepreneurial university at all,
believe that such a university is one that adopts commercial methods and values
and one that engages in commercialisation of research. There is little knowledge
of the other schools of thought such as corporate entrepreneurship, Triple Helix,
or entrepreneurial ecosystem approaches. The gap between world best-practice
and Victorian practice is not being addressed.
