A typology of the engaged university: an empirical investigation into how universities in Europe engage

Arno Meerman and Todd Davey

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2025, vol. 37, issue 9-10, 1261-1287

Abstract: The growing recognition of universities’ potential to positively impact their environments has led to increased discussions about their external engagement with stakeholders within the quadruple helix of universities, government, business and society. This research aims to identify the factors that define universities in terms of their external engagement activities and provide a unique exploratory typology of university engagement, including both traditional and emerging forms of engagement. This unique quantitative analysis of international data gathers data from 4,612 academics across 68 universities in Europe and takes into account not only research engagement with industry but also engagement activities in education, management, and regional development with public and social organizations. Drawing from the growing base of literature around the engaged, entrepreneurial, civic university and research-intensive university, this paper identifies four typologies of external university engagement. The study also shows that institutional characteristics (e.g. size, age, type) and those of the external environment (e.g. population size and density, patent applications, R&D investment) are related to universities’ engagement profiles. Implications of these results for policy makers and university leaders include important insights for developing appropriate strategies for university engagement and the necessity of tailored approaches in stimulating external engagement.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2025.2483249

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