Benchmarking Documented Student Entrepreneurship Support: A Comparative Study of Highly Ranked Universities Using Clark’s Entrepreneurial University Model
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Student entrepreneurship has become an increasingly significant function within universities, encompassing entrepreneurship education, mentoring, venture development, funding, incubation, networking, and additional institutional support mechanisms. However, universities differ substantially in the organisation and integration of these forms of support. This study addresses this gap by employing a qualitative comparative documentary research design to examine student entrepreneurship support across ten highly ranked universities and to benchmark documented practices against a focal university. Drawing on Clark's Entrepreneurial University model, the analysis applies five pathways: strengthened steering core, expanded developmental periphery, diversified funding base, stimulated academic heartland, and integrated entrepreneurial culture. The study examines publicly accessible institutional documents, including entrepreneurship centre webpages, programme descriptions, institutional reports, official news releases, and related materials. The findings indicate that leading universities do not adhere to a single model of student entrepreneurship support. Instead, they combine entrepreneurship education, experiential learning, mentoring, venture development, funding, infrastructure, networking, and external engagement in varied institutional configurations. The comparison further reveals that the focal university has documented elements corresponding to all five Clark pathways, although the breadth and consistency of publicly available evidence differ across pathways. These findings suggest that benchmarking should prioritise transferable institutional functions rather than direct replication of specific university structures. As the analysis relies exclusively on publicly accessible institutional documentation, the findings reflect the breadth and visibility of documented support and may not capture practices that are implemented but not publicly reported. This study contributes to research on entrepreneurial universities and student entrepreneurship by demonstrating how comparative documentary analysis can identify institutional patterns and provide a context-sensitive foundation for strengthening university entrepreneurship ecosystems.
Author: Leo Santiago III Arrabaca
Institution: Xavier University
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7207779560