TY - JOUR
T1 - Communicating the societal value of the entrepreneurial university: evidence from South Korea
AU - Klingler-Vidra, Robyn
AU - Chalmers, Adam
AU - Pacheco Pardo, Ramon
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Authors
PY - 2025/2/20
Y1 - 2025/2/20
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - entrepreneurial university
KW - media
KW - third mission
KW - South Korea
KW - Entrepreneurship
KW - University
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85218455133&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.102846
DO - 10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.102846
M3 - Article
SN - 0160-791X
VL - 81
JO - TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY
JF - TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY
M1 - 102846
ER -