Desingning the Entrepreneurial University Model based on Grounded theory (case study: units of Islamic Azad University of West Iran)

The purpose of this research is to design entrepreneurial university model for Islamic Azad universities in west of Iran. This research is carried out in the framework of qualitative approach and by using grounded data analysis method.

Islamic Azad Universities of the west of Iran compose the statistical society of this research. The number of participants is Twelve from the entrepreneur university experts who were selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected by semi-structured interview method. The validity of the questions was obtained using the views of the experts of the entrepreneurial university. The data analysis is performed based on grounded theory systematic approach in three stages of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding.The results indicate Twenty-one categories included human resources, economic bases, organizational policies, organizational structure, organizational culture, entrepreneurial education, university strategy, entrepreneurial organizational attitude, entrepreneurial enterprise climate, risk taking, changing the nature of higher education, accreditation and university status, preparing the university entrepreneurship document, improving the business environment, university relations with the community and entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship ecosystems, political and lobbying, university internationalization, stakeholder satisfaction, knowledge commercialization which was classified in the six main categories including causal conditions, axial phenomenon, underlying factors, interventional conditions, strategies and outcomes in the form of a paradigmatic model. 

Result and Discusion: 

The results of the coding of the interviews and the analysis of the qualitative sector findings showed that the two components of competent human resources and economic bases are causal and creator conditions of entrepreneurial university. Entrepreneurial organizational policies, including reformation the upper policies and Leges of the Ministry of Science; Entrepreneurial organizational structure; Entrepreneurial organizational culture and the implementation of customer-oriented and entrepreneurial educational and research policies were the most important features and components of Entrepreneurial University. Also the contextual conditions that affect the components of Entrepreneurial University include university strategy, entrepreneurial enterprise climate, entrepreneurial attitude, risk taking, changing the nature of higher education and expectation of society, government and industry to resolving their needs, That has revolutionized higher education and led universities to become more entrepreneurial and responsive to their customers' demands. The sixth factor contriver of entrepreneurial university is university reputation, which affects stakeholders and clients and encourages them to invest in university and participate with it. Interfering factors that can accelerate or hinder the transformation of a traditional university into an entrepreneurial university and somewhat are not controlled by the university; legal and juridical positions, entrepreneurial ecosystems, including university-owned ecosystems and outside the university ecosystems, politicize and the kinds of lobbies that are involved in most of our lives and universities are subject to this. One of the strategies for accessing entrepreneurial university is the existence and implementation of entrepreneurship university vision and document, which is the channel of passage and the Lights of the way. Improving the business environment and communication of university with its surrounding community including entrepreneurs, communication with entrepreneurial universities Entrepreneurial Universities of the World and the Region and modeling them, is one of the most effective strategies in creating an entrepreneurial university. Ultimately, internationalization of university, stakeholders satisfaction, and Commercialization of knowledgein in the template of Knowledge Based Companies, science and technology parks, and the creation of natal businesses were the consequences of entrepreneurial university. Accordingly, it is recommended that the Ministry of Science appoint individuals to manage universities to be entrepreneurs or to adhere to government and university entrepreneurship policies. Entrepreneurship has a role to play in the evaluation and promotion of academic and administrative professors. Universities are more connected to the industry through growth centers, science parks and industry liaison offices