Re‑viewing entrepreneurial universities through alumni engagement

Abstract

The paper contributes to re-viewing entrepreneurial universities by expanding the understanding of the role and impact of alumni engagement in this context. Embedded in a stakeholder theory perspective, we develop and test a framework that identifies social, behavioural, cognitive and affective drivers of alumni engagement. We conducted statistical analyses to test hypotheses on a sample of 493 entrepreneurship graduates from Venture Creation Programs (VCP) at three major universities in Scandinavia. Our theorising and findings suggest that alumni engagement is multifaceted—encompassing providing and connecting functions. Furthermore, the analysis suggests social, behavioural and affective drivers to accelerate alumni engagement. Future studies of entrepreneurial universities should focus more specifically on how entrepreneurship education and university managers may prepare students for becoming engaged alumni.