Universidade empreendedora e orientação empreendedora: um estudo de caso em uma instituição de ensino superior brasileira

Abstract

In increasingly technological and dynamic context, entrepreneurship has been the object of interest for many researchers because it is directly associated with innovation. This phenomenon occurs at the individual, behavioral and organizational level, with universities standing out as agents for promoting change and economic development. Classic authors such as Schumpeter, Filion and Alan Gibb stress the importance of creative disruption, entrepreneurial skills and capturing opportunities. Clark and Etzkowitz's classic models deal with the revolutions of Entrepreneurial Universities (EUs), their role in the context in which they are inserted and in the strong performance of management. Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) appears as a possible lens to analyze organizational entrepreneurial performance through dimensions, from the perspective of Lumpkin and Dess and Todorovic. However, studies that connect these two constructs - EU and EO - are scarce. From this scenario, it is questioned which conceptual tool, based on the interface between EU and EO, would be able to facilitate the understanding of entrepreneurial activities in a Brazilian higher education institution. Therefore, the general objective of this study is to propose a conceptual scheme that integrates EU and EO and is able to facilitate the understanding of entrepreneurial activities within the scope of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Minas Gerais (IFMG) - Campus Bambuí. Aim to answering the listed basic question, as well as reaching the proposed general objective, the present study was based on applied research, with an exploratory character and on a qualitative approach to the problem. The technical procedure adopted was the case study, with a questionnaire applied to the institution's managers. An empirical survey of campus and context data - secondary data - was carried out to anchor a qualitative analysis with the primary data obtained from the operationalization of the conceptual scheme. The results achieved were the conceptual and instrumental schemes anchored in EU and EO, its operationalization on campus and, finally, the verification in relation to this scheme being able to analyze the entrepreneurial campus’s activities from the perspective of these constructs. These results demonstrate innovative contributions - conceptual and instrumental schemes - integrating the main concepts of EU and EO and their operationalization in any public or private educational institution, as well as the expansion of debates on entrepreneurship in educational spheres, especially in Brazilian Federal Institutes. Among the practical implications of this study, the proposed tool is cited, which can help managers in the monitoring functions of entrepreneurial activities, stimulate reflections on EU and OE in institutions, elevating them to the level of an entrepreneurial institution and, finally expand scientific debates nationally and internationally, thus strengthening the entrepreneurial culture. In the field of limitations, this research carried out a single case study, which limits the generalization of the results and the suggestion to expand the research with other servers on the campus, including students, in surveys with open questions that allow more complete analyzes about the entrepreneurial activities of IFMG - Campus Bambuí