Exploration and verification of entrepreneurial capacity status in selected universities of Mazandaran Province

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a thought and process by which an individual or group recognizes new idea and opportunity, and utilizes it successfully. The universities, as a knowledge producer factor, and their diffusion institution play a widespread role in industrial innovation. Indeed, the appearance of entrepreneurial university is a response to increasing importance of knowledge in local and national innovation system and new perception of university. The purpose of the present research was to explain entrepreneurial capacity status in Mazandaran Province universities. Statistical population of the present study includes 5 selected universities in Mazandaran Province; 92 experts and responsible agents were selected as statistical sample. For gathering the data, standard questionnaire was used and data were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL software. The derived results from structural equation modeling showed that the presented model totality was supported by fitness index amounts (GFI=0.92, NFI=0.95, and RMSEA=0.067) and the T-Student test showed that entrepreneurial capacity and its related dimensions in the studied universities have an undesirable status.

Keywords

• entrepreneurial capacity
• Higher education
• innovation
• Mazandaran Province universities