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Entrepreneurship, edupreneurship,

technopreneurship in Higher
education
HIGHER AND TERTIARY EDUCATION CONFERENCE,
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of


Technology
The purpose of higher education
The roles of HEI are teaching, conducting research, and (Community service)
working to assist in the economic and social development of a region via the
capitalization of knowledge
Knowledge generation and transfer is core business Higher Education Institutions
(HEI).
the dissemination of knowledge has been in the form of high quality academic
publications, abstracts, conference proceedings, and invited presentations.
This core mission of HEI is being transformed world over, there has been an
addition of commercial value to the mission of HEI
Today teaching and research institutions not only aim to serve the public interest
with educational objectives, but also focus on the receipt of revenue through the
exploitation of intellectual property created by university staff and students.
The new call is for technology transfer and the formation of firms

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology


To address the new community service purpose new concepts have been
introduced in the HE business:
Entrepreneurship
Edupreneurship
Technopreneurship
Intellectual property
M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology
Entrepreneurship defined

Hisrich, Michael, and Shephard, (2005) regard entrepreneurship as a grouping of


behaviors such as initiative taking, organizing and reorganizing social and
economic mechanisms to turn resources and situation to practical account.
Kirby and Honeywood (2007) recognize entrepreneurship as more than new
venture creation and posit that it involves opportunity recognition, resource
harnessing, risk taking and change.
It is a behaviour that results in the creation of business organisations
Entrepreneurship has gained significant attention in both the developing and the
industrialised world. This has led to widespread development of entrepreneurship
curricula in many higher education institutions
M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology
Entrepreneurship in HEI

The popularity of entrepreneurship in HEI is largely due to fundamental


socio-economic forces such as the persistence of unemployment, precarious
employment and the emergence of knowledge-driven economies.
The shift towards entrepreneurship education is also from the realization
that students can and should derive benefit from learning how to create
value from their knowledge and skills (Duval and Shartrand, 2010).

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology


Edupreneurship
Is the practice of entrepreneurship in the education sector
an edupreneur has been defined as a person who has served as an educator
prior to organizing a business related to education and has invested time,
energy, and capital to create, develop, and market a program, product, service,
or technology to enhance learning (Lacatus and Sticulescu , 2016)
Edupreneurs are not satisfied with mere possession of knowledge and
understanding of a subject, but are desirous of such metamorphosing into
value addition for the society.
The extraordinary value that edupreneurs have is the new vision on what
the educational system should be in order to be better off. They think
beyond existing constraints and solutions.
M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology
EDUPRENEURSHIP ACTIVITIES

developing and editing of educational products and materials


providing of tutoring services
educational consulting
Educational software provision
founding of independent education institutions

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology


Technopreneurship
Changes in technology disrupt the comparative
advantage of nations and industries
entrepreneurship forms the sub structure upon which
science, technology and the creative industries are built
Technopreneurship refers to Technological
entrepreneurship or technology based
entrepreneurship . Technopreneurship also refers to
new or high-growth potential enterprises based in
technology
M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology
Objectives of Technopreneurship
One of the objectives of Technopreneurship is commercialization of innovations
developed by academic scientists via patenting, licensing, start-up creation, and
universityindustry partnerships
Commercialization is a highpoint in Technopreneurship - the hallmark of turning
technology-based ideas, products and industries into profitable entrepreneurial
projects.
Technopreneurship also aims at disseminating technology for communities as part of
social responsibility of the HEI and providing technology for government, especially
for defence technology and technology required for quality improvement of public
services especially when the government is the major sponsor of R&D

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology


Benefits of Technopreneurship to HEI

For the HEI, successfully engaging in Technopreneurship is likely to lead to


financial, reputational, and societal benefits.
the financial rewards can occur directly or indirectly via an increase in
reputation, prestige, influence or societal benefits
technopreneurial universities should however avoid having an over-
emphasis on royalty income and an under-emphasis on entrepreneurship.

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology


Viable Technopreneurship
The viability of Technopreneurship heavily depends on its ability to produce
desirable technologies i.e it should be more focused on developing
technologies that are relevant to the needs of potential users, technically
reliable, and economically competitive technologies
It is extremely difficult to encourage technopreneurship if business
enterprises are not interested in indigenous technology developed by
domestic HEIs

Therefore, technology development at the HEIs should be based on a


demand-driven approach.

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology


Technopreneurship development

To provide the necessary ecosystems for technopreneurship development


some countries develop science and technology parks .
Technopreneurship development has also taken the form of
entrepreneurship programs in educational institutions (Tan, 2002)
Technopreneurship can also be developed through business plan
competitions

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology


Technopreneurship development; Whose
responsibility?
HEI- faculty , students and administrators
Government- enacting favorable regulation and public policy for creating
conducive ecosystem for Technopreneurship to flourish and directly by
providing risk capital.
Industry
Community

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology


HIT
HIT mandate- development, incubation, transferring and commercialisation of technology
Technopreneurship aims at producing scientists and engineers who can
create new products, industries, and markets. These scientists and engineers are
productivity driven, technologically capable and competitive at both the local and global
markets.
Potential technopreneurs must be equipped with both technical and business skills.
B.Tech programmes offer a hands-on approach
A formalised program to equip students with the needed skills, motivation and knowledge
to recognise business opportunities, search customers insights, understand the needs of
the market , create an idea, develop a business plan and run the business .
the thrust is to produce knowledge- able graduates rather than just knowledgeable
graduates

M.M.MASUNDA , Technopreneurship Development Centre, Harare Institute of Technology

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