Stakeholder management and the entrepreneurial university

There has been rapid growth of entrepreneurship education at colleges and universities throughout the world (Katz, 2003; Kuratko, 2005). Entrepreneurship education is seen as playing a vital role in the development of more and/or better entrepreneurs with greater levels of knowledge, skills and other competencies (Gorman et al., 1997; Pittaway and Cope, 2007; Martin et al., 2013). In this context, entrepreneurial universities play an important role as both knowledge producers and disseminating institutions (Guerrero and Urbano, 2012). Further, in the modern knowledge economy, the entrepreneurial university is seen as a central force that drives innovation, creativity and economic growth (Audretsch, 1995; Audretsch, et al., 2006; Mueller, 2006). At the core of the entrepreneurial university concept is a connection between the ëivory towerí and the ëreal worldí. The concept of the entrepreneurial university is a strategy that has been followed by many leading universities around the world (Atlantic Canadian, 2004b) and a strategy pursued by various regional governments (Atlantic Canadian, 2004a).