The University as a Social Entrepreneur

Paper in proceeding, 2009

Accepting that the university has taken on an entrepreneurial role in society, this paper intends to explore how the university can adopt the role of a social entrepreneur by presenting an example of a school project within Chalmers University of Technology. The overall aim of the school project is to stimulate creativity, project management and entrepreneurial thinking and has over the years developed into a social entrepreneurship activity. The main conclusion of the paper is that the university can adopt the role of a social entrepreneur in alignment with the university’s missions of delivering education, research, and societal utility. The paper provides one example of how the involvement of the university in social entrepreneurship creates multiple societal benefits. This example can lead to further comparison, analysis and research concerning the entrepreneurial roles undertaken by the university.