Organizational Modularity and Intra-University Relationships Between Entrepreneurship Education and Technology Transfer,” Stanford University Colloquium on Entrepreneurship Education and Technology Transfer

Both university technology licenses and entrepreneurship education have witnessed remarkable growth in the past two decades. These activities may be complementary in many respects, as when participation in an entrepreneurship program prepares a student to start a company based on university technology, or when technology transfer personnel provide resources and expertise for an entrepreneurship course. At the same time, however, the activities are distinct along a number of dimensions. Drawing on the loose coupling and organizational modularity literature, we discuss appropriate intra-university relationships between groups engaged in technology transfer and entrepreneurship education. To illustrate this perspective, we present network images and statistics of inter-group relationships at Stanford University, along with three thumbnail case studies that illustrate how a university may facilitate synergies between groups while still acknowledging differences. Ultimately, we argue that while entrepreneurship education and technology transfer have overlapping areas of concern, differences between them warrant maintenance of autonomy for each