No innovation without entrepreneurship : from passion to practice

Abstract

In his Catalyst article, Kenneth Kahn takes an institutional perspective on innovation and entrepreneurship, arguing that a lack of differentiation between these two terms results in a missing demarcation of entrepreneurship and innovation centers at universities. This leads to research and teaching activities in the respective areas that are not clearly differentiated and therefore create suboptimal results. I reflect on Kenneth's thoughts but argue that we should not aim for two different centers or estranged disciplines of entrepreneurship and innovation but rather take a joint perspective centering on the challenges of creating and bringing the new to the world. I call for a joint core (aka the entrepreneurial mindset) of entrepreneurship and innovation at universities but different curricula and instruments for the individual challenges of entrepreneurship and innovation, differentiating along the source of the problem or idea, the disciplines involved, the instruments and conditions needed, and the ecosystems to be built.