Entrepreneurial university dynamics: Structured ambivalence, relative deprivation and institution-formation in the Stanford innovation system

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate over the entrepreneurial university. We utilize recent developments at Stanford as a laboratory to explore the entrepreneurial university transition, suggesting their relevance to academic institutions considering adopting this model. Exemplified by the relationship between Stanford University and Silicon Valley a vision emerged of the role of the university as a promoter of technological innovation. However, the development pathway of the entrepreneurial university is ill understood, even at Stanford, an iconic case. A gap opened up between Stanford and the Valley, due to an assumption of innovation as a laissez-faire phenomenon, despite close relations with firms that pre-dated Silicon Valley, and the more recent emergence of iconic firms, like CISCO and Google, from the university. In response, a series of translational and innovation support mechanisms have been founded, providing “intermediate ties” that link the academic and business worlds in a state of structured ambivalence.