Communicating the societal value of the entrepreneurial university: Evidence from South Korea

Robyn Klingler-Vidra, Adam William Chalmers and Ramon Pacheco Pardo

Technology in Society, 2025, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: This study examines two concurrent trends in higher education. First, universities are increasingly focused on enabling entrepreneurship to fulfil their "third mission" of contributing to the regional economy. Second, they are intensifying efforts to communicate the entrepreneurial university portfolio as evidence of their societal value. Although previous research has explored these areas, how universities convey their entrepreneurial efforts remains unclear. Are entrepreneurial universities primarily portrayed as institutions that train future entrepreneurs, spin out companies and intellectual property, or drive cultural change towards entrepreneurship? To address this, we use natural language processing techniques to provide novel insights into how universities communicate entrepreneurship-focused activities and capability-building efforts. Our empirical focus is South Korea's top ten universities, for which we analyzed 7889 national newspaper articles in terms of a sociological capital framework. Our findings indicate that human capital-related activities receive greater emphasis than cultural and social capital capability-building efforts. This finding suggests that the third mission may not be clearly conveyed in coverage of the entrepreneurial university. The managerial implications are that university leadership can enhance communications to better showcase their societal connections and contributions in line with their third mission.

Keywords: Communication; Entrepreneurship; Human capital; Reputation; Social capital; Universities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O15 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:81:y:2025:i:c:s0160791x25000363

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.102846

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