Framing the entrepreneurial university: the case of the National University of Singapore

The purpose of this paper is to explore issues and situations affecting the entrepreneurial university via frame analysis to determine how institutional members frame the National University of Singapore (NUS) as an entrepreneurial university and provide key insights on how it has been manifested in reality.

Interviews of 18 institutional members from the NUS will be the focus of this paper. Categories of frames were adopted from environmental conflict research. Official documents were also analysed to support the frames found in this study.

Based on the NUS case, the entrepreneurial university was perceived in an apparently ambiguous setup. Interviewees’ framing features the reality affecting the entrepreneurial university in relation to disciplinary identities, institutional configuration, power of important actors and risk perceptions attached to entrepreneurial activities. Issues presented by the case are considered intractable because institutional members have interpretative differences in motivations and interests in pursuing entrepreneurial activities.

Future research can draw upon the factors that contribute to the institutionalisation of the entrepreneurial university model.

The results may assist universities in refining certain approaches in carrying out entrepreneurial activities. Using methods such as frame analysis can enable identification of problems and ways to resolve the issues concerning reforms or policy frameworks introduced to universities.

At the time of this writing, analysing the entrepreneurial university model through the application of frame analysis is novel and yet to be explored in the field of higher education.