Assessment of Entrepreneurial and Innovative Higher Education Institutions in Abu Dhabi

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is recently considered by experts an exciting career path for youth and university graduates, offering remarkable opportunities to possess professional independence, obtain practical and market-relevant skills, secure financial benefits, and add value to economic growth. Hence, countries across the globe are promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in order to drive economic transformation, specifically the private sector and the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) domain, as its considered one of the critical factors to obtain market and business sophistication. Subsequently, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have significantly expanded their curricular focus on entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, the number of universities fresh graduates initiating startups has not demonstrated matching growth. On the contrary, recent studies show that employers believe that the market suffers from a talent gap where university graduates lack the necessary skillset to start a new venture due to rapid technological advancement. Hence, the country desire to sustain the prosperity is dependent on establishing a robust innovation ecosystem. The innovation capacity of such ecosystem is measured by the matureness of the linkages between (HEIs) and the industry. Knowledge spillover is the core of these linkages as the transfer of information and knowledge dependent on the quality of higher education since it is an important ingredient to develop the performance of human capital in the labor market. Considering the UAE's aim toward a knowledge-based economy, the country aspires to be successful through investing in building research capabilities, education quality and innovation process. Therefore, more studies are conducted recently to understand more the enabling components which leads to business sophistication. One of those components is the empowerment of entrepreneurial activities and practices within HEIs to provide a solid pipeline of innovators and entrepreneurs to the economy. Investing in nurturing the surrounding ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship is crucial to be addressed by relevant stakeholders, such as establishing more incubators in Abu Dhabi. Moreover, the overall efforts of HEIs in breeding such capabilities should be fully in line with the national innovation strategy of the UAE/Abu Dhabi Government. There is a lack of literature in terms of the entrepreneurial and innovative status of Higher Education Intuitions (HEIs). Hence, the study seeks to explore the impact of critical dimensions on the innovation and entrepreneurial activities in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Abu Dhabi. Furthermore, the study also tries to recognize through these dimensions the embedded success factors within HEIs for promoting and supporting entrepreneurship in Abu Dhabi. The study also seeks to establish links between these factors and the research productivity of Abu Dhabi based HEIs. This research is designed to be a descriptive and explanatory study. The study has used a multi-method approach combining desk-research, third party research productivity database, and a primary survey with HEIs' leaders. This study will offer more insights and will improve the understanding of innovation and entrepreneurial dimensions to be considered by the higher education institutions and regulators.

Date of Award	May 2020
Original language	American English