Management & Marketing no. 4/2014

The social impact of university entrepreneurship in Romania: Is the institutional discourse replicated or adapted?

Ramona CANTARAGIU,
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

Carmen PĂUNESCU,
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

Shahrazad HADAD,
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract. The lack of governmental funding accompanied by an increase in the demand for social services have urged the universities to rethink their mission and their position on the market. The paper aims to investigate the dimensions of social impact of university entrepreneurship building on recent studies on the social mission of higher education. The existence of several dimensions in academia is tested by using a sample of twelve universities from Romania which rank first in terms of quality and academic results. A comparison is made between the ways in which the dimensions appear in the discourses of the universities to establish if the discourse is unaltered of variable. The examination reveals that the degree of social orientation differs among universities, some relying more on the activity of their student associations to promote social change, whereas others take the matters in their own hands and implement social projects based on European funding.

Keyword: university entrepreneurship, social impact, social responsibility, Romanian universities, higher education, triple helix.

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