Validation of Entrepreneurial University Model: A Qualitative Study with the Grounded Theory Approach

Response to new expectations of society, government and industry has changed the role of universities. Nowadays, universities are expected to play a more active role in national and regional economic developments. Indeed, the emergence of entrepreneurial universities is a response to this expectation, which has entailed forming a new face for the new role of universities. The purpose of this study was to validate an entrepreneurial university model with a grounded theory approach. The population in the qualitative part was the entrepreneurial university experts in universities in the west of Iran, of whom 12 were selected by snowball sampling. The study population in the quantitative part included 396, of whom 211 were selected as the sample. The confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to validate and test the conceptual model in SPSS, LISREL and PLS software. Results of the qualitative part revealed 201 concepts, 21 categories and 6 main classes placed in form of a paradigmatic model with causal conditions, core category, context conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences. Additionally, based on the results of quantitative section, the fitness indices (χ2/df = 2.114, GFI = 0.91, AGFI = 0.89, NFI = 0.97, CFI = 0.98, RFI = 0.97, RMR = 0.015, and RMSEA = 0.073) showed that obtained model has favorable fit and 6 main aspects and their conditions can explain the variable entrepreneurial university. Based on the results of the validation, the model and the conditions proposed in the study can evaluate an entrepreneurial university.