Intrapreneuring Within a Higher Education Institution: Introducing Virtual Business Internships

Abstract

Past research on business internships recognizes positive effects on its main stakeholders: students, employers, and higher education institutions. Moreover, some authors have acknowledged further effects in virtual internships and when applying new technologies to the internship experience, particularly referred to enhanced computer skills and learning outcomes. The Faculty of Business Administration and Management of the Universitat Politècnica de València, in Spain, has experienced an outstanding increase of its internships in recent years. As employers are demanding more computer skills in a globalized and technological world, it is expected that virtual internships and the use of ICTs during the traineeship will be a tendency in higher education institutions in the future. At present, the management of internships of the two new Double Degrees in our institution (Business Administration and Management + Computer Science Engineering, and Business Administration and Management + Telecommunications Engineering), offers, in the opinion of the authors, the perfect scenario to explore the possibilities of new technologies applied to internships and to put into practice virtual internships. Recent changes in the Spanish laws and in the regulations of universities, such as the Universitat Politècnica de València, allow business internships to take place abroad. These conditions could provide an opportunity for innovation and growth, especially by combining internationalization with virtualization of traineeships. The above mentioned initiative is a good sample of intrapreneurship within a large organization, where the employees, in this case, the authors of this text, behave like entrepreneurs, acting like agents of change.