ENTREPRENEURIAL UNIVERSITIES IN THE FORMATION OF NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL AND SOCIAL CAPITAL

Abstract

This paper discusses challenges of developing entrepreneurial universities and their crucial role in building intellectual capital of the nation. Entrepreneurial universities position themselves not only as academic institutions of knowledge “transfer” but also as a generating system for social networks with higher levels of national and social capital that can solve complex intellectual tasks that have a direct impact on the real world. This feature can be implemented and continued through giving university graduates an opportunity to learn to solve applied research problems in their corresponding fields of study. From this perspective, the entrepreneurial university should sustain practice of formation of different research schools, uniting graduates not only by a certain body of knowledge but by research and development of schools outside the university as a social network. Entrepreneurial universities may become an important element of industrial clusters, overcoming the lack of financial resources and promoting the development of regions in which they operate.