A Conceptual Framework of Leadership and Governance in Sustaining Entrepreneurial Universities Illustrated with Case Material from a Retrospective Review of a University’s Strategic Transformation: The Enterprise University

Abstract

A conceptual framework of leadership and governance is described here, the aim of which is to help universities undertake strategic transformation in becoming more entrepreneurial, that is, more agile, resilient and innovative. The framework is illustrated with case material from a retrospective analysis of changes in a UK university that was differentiating its mission to become the enterprise university. Making explicit the implicit ways of change management and partnership working involved in strategic transformation, the framework draws out those leadership and governance processes operating in practice. In this way, those practices and processes promoting healthy idea flow are identified as well as those acting as barriers to innovation. It is posited that the framework could support universities and other knowledge organizations to more fully advance their purpose by enhancing value creation released through social networks driving innovation. The leadership and governance model dominant in most university and industry management systems is a hierarchical, formal authority structure. While relevant to organizational resourcing, accountability and scaling, bounded hierarchy is not well-positioned to support the healthy flow of ideas necessary for successful entrepreneurial activities. Given that universities and many industries are ‘idea factories’, new models of leadership and governance that serve to more fully leverage the creativity embedded in the organization can accelerate delivery against the shared goals emerging from collaboration. New ways of working that better reflect the actuality of innovation and the idea ecosystem are identified, given that ideas emerge from community systems comprised of diverse individuals connecting with others in groups with ideas flowing along social networks. Peer-to-peer exchanges are inherently more agile, and engagement is characterized by idea exploration, harvesting and co-creation with idea flow across institutional barriers. New models of leadership and governance that underpin the dynamic articulation of the formal hierarchy with the unbounded community of social networks can support entrepreneurial activities and are key to securing sustainable university-industry partnerships. The model described here draws upon learning explored in executive education and talent development programs exploring institutional sustainability leadership, including approaches to driving innovation and social enterprise (undertaken in the USA, Europe and UK). New ways of working are proffered that re-frame university-industry partnerships as dynamic social networks, where ideas are exchanged and developed, supported by leadership and governance processes that promote, rather than hinder, healthy idea flow. Trustful relationships are developed over time across boundaries, both disciplinary and organizational, and support experimentation and innovation in line with the expressed shared purpose. In an entrepreneurial university, leaders at every level need to be conscious of the organizational senior management hierarchy operating as one system and the community of social networks acting as another system, and seek to understand how best to harness the creative tensions between the two systems. Rather than an organizational chart defining membership, creative and decision-making processes and systems are designed to better reflect actual interactions and idea flow throughout the organization and with its partners. Developing new models of leadership and governance that map against the stages of idea flow can serve to drive up successful entrepreneurial (and intrapreneurial) activities. In this way, entrepreneurial universities can increase idea flow within the university-industry network(s) in line with their strategic intent. In making the implicit explicit it is possible to transform the behaviour of the people involved and, through them, the culture that supports entrepreneurial partnerships. The conceptual framework described here is necessarily reductionist in nature, however, mapping idea flow from successful projects and applying such knowledge to future project flows along with the associated governance processes could add atomic-level detail relevant to the organizations and projects concerned to drive healthy idea flow over the long-term. The conceptual framework is illustrated by reference to the strategic transformation of a UK university becoming more entrepreneurial as it delivered change in line with differentiating its academic mission to become the enterprise university.