Organizational Capabilities of the Entrepreneurial University

• Author: Lucian Gramescu, Nicolae Bibu
• Pages: 95-104

Entrepreneurial Higher Education and Economic Progress

95

Organizational Capabilities of the Entrepreneurial University

Lucian Gramescu1, Nicolae Bibu2

Abstract: Developing entrepreneurial capabilities has become a key competitiveness strategy in business

across the world. Overall, organizational capabilities can provide p erformance improvements by taking an

integrated approach to people, in frastructure and processes as means of codifying organization al learning. The

paper proposes “organizational capability” as a valuable tool for universities who seek to develop their

competitiveness entrepreneurially, especially across the EU, where higher education is no longer a guarantee

for employment and alternatives are so rely needed. For this purpose, we explore conceptualizations of

organizational capabilities, propose an integrative model and apply it to learn more about the development of

capability from practice at Aalto University in Finland.

Keywords: organizational capability; organizational learning; entrepreneurial university

JEL Classification: L26; L30

1. Introduction

The global market for education has become very competitive, with universities increasingly reaching

outside of domestic markets to attract students. While the best financed universities have actually

shifted their income generation from fees to investment portfolio management (Harvard Business

School being a key example), no higher education institution can forego the need of attracting the best

students available in its class in order to keep the performance standards that endorse it.

Changes brought about by globalization, massification of higher education, technology, demographics

(Allison & Javorka, 2014; Wilson, 2008), as well as resource stringency due to increasing competition

and public budget cuts and performance-based allocation (Allison & Javorka, 2014) have forced HE

institutions to reassess their business models. With lower, more competitive access to resources and

increased uncertainty, taking the entrepreneurial path has been a solution for an increasing number of

institutions (Gibb, 2012; Mets, 2010).

These trends are particularly important for Europe. Criticized for lacking entrepreneurial dynamism,

the EU is lagging behind the US in innovative and entrepreneurial outputs. Entrepreneurship education

1 PhD Candidate, West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Romania, Address: 4

Vasile Pârvan Blvd., Timisoara, Tel.: +40256 592 111, Corresponding author: lucian.gramescu@gmail.com.

2 Professor PhD, West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Romania, Address: 4

Vasile Pârvan Blvd., Timisoara, Tel.: +40256 592 111, E-mail: nicolae.bibu@feaa.uvt.ro.