Institutional Entrepreneurship: Higher Education in Hong Kong

Traditionally, universities have sought to maintain or enhance their competitive position with activities chiefly directed at student recruitment, particularly through the use of aggressive promotional activities. With the tumult and dynamism in the present environment, university administrators cannot rely primarily on student recruitment efforts for success. Rather, they will need to be proactive and innovative, as well as have a proclivity for taking risks. They will need to adopt a strategic marketing approach and enfold it into their strategic management activities. And by becoming more market oriented, insightful academic administrators will likely engage in corporate entrepreneurship. This paper discusses how corporate entrepreneurship fits in which strategic marketing management, promulgates why such an approach is especially beneficial for universities-in-transition, and then illustrates its use with Hong Kong case examples. This study postulates a typology of strategic marketing management with elements of entrepreneurship and market-orientation for universities in this transitional period of national development. In order to understand holistically from the context wherein a given institution operates, a combination of “multiple” and “observational” case study method as a qualitative research approach was utilized. Two conventional and two newly designated universities from Hong Kong were selected as case studies. The research findings indicate a desirable sequence for developing institutional entrepreneurship from intrapreneurship to frame-breaking changes. Hong Kong cases of universities demonstrate how Central Management has influenced the collegial process by means of administrative measures and the progression of institutional entrepreneurship. This study suggests that Central Management should utilize the integrated Management According Position (M.A.P.) to seek their own competitive position(s) and programs so as to plan their resources generation and effectively deploy these resources in accordance with their selected academic program portfolios which are determined by variables for market potential and current market share. It is also suggested that management should integrate marketing communication effort and resources planning institution-wide in order for these commercially-oriented programs to capitalize holistically on what the university can offer.