The Nigerian economy today is in dire distress as a result of the current pandemic and the inability of the country to move away from its over-reliance on oil revenue. After the experience gained from the 2016 recession, the federal government made some changes to diversify the economy, however, the current situation suggests that we are not so better off and approaching another recession. Perhaps if we were given more time, we would have seen how effective the policies of the federal government were, but for now, we are back to square one. Understandably, the federal government is focused on creating the right mixture of monetary and fiscal policies to resuscitate the economy after the 2016 recession, but, these are just tools used to regulate the economic system, we will need a lot more than that for economic growth. It is no news that infrastructure development is critical for Nigeria, but when we speak of infrastructure, we tend to think of roads, electricity, water, which are important, however, education is often left out.
Within the educational sector, universities have a huge role to play in rapid economic growth within the country. In countries around the world, the university’s role has become wider in contributing to social and economic benefits to the country. Universities were known for advancing research and educating new generations primarily, but things are changing, creating a third mission of fostering social and economic value from the knowledge generated. Universities are embodying the idea of entrepreneurship into the educational eco-system. When you think of the concept, it makes sense, considering most organizations have an R&D department dedicated to new product development, needless to speak of the highest educational institution that houses career researchers and the creative-minded new generation. This has given rise to the concept of academic entrepreneurship, which is the transformation of knowledge into products, processes, and organizations; ultimately contributing to economic growth and innovation.
Academic entrepreneurship was first pioneered by universities such as MIT and Stanford and has been around for a few years. We all know of the popular Google, which was a Ph.D. project by two students at Stanford University, but there are still thousands and thousands of university spin-offs created yearly generated from intellectual property. Most of these spin-offs are most times acquired by organizations at their infant stage. In 2013, twitter, a large social media platform, acquired Bluefin Labs from MIT, a social analytics company for $90 million, this is just one of many. These academic institutions now boast of billions of dollars in revenue just from patents and the sale of start-up companies created from the intellectual properties of their students and faculty members. The main idea is that Universities are harnessing creativity and using it as a means to economic growth. Likewise, Uppsala University in Sweden has also been successful in university spin-offs that are focused on the development of the economy. In 2017 an master’s student created a company called Optima plants, a business which grows herbs and other green crops without soil, sunlight or pesticides locally and all year round, regardless of weather and season, the business now has gained the interest of industry giants who are interested in purchasing the technology.
Comparing the achievements of Universities abroad with their Nigerian counterparts seems farfetched, considering countries such as the United States have been cultivating universities’ entrepreneurial practice since 1980, through the Bayh-Dole Act. However, emerging economies such as Korea, Brazil, China, and South Africa who were, or, are still in the phase of enforcing import substitution, and protectionism policies are making strides also. For Brazil, academic entrepreneurship made its landmark in 2004, with the passage of the innovation law which created the framework for the development of university-industry cooperation, encouraging intellectual property of academic technologies, including incentives to foster joint research between university and companies and the development of business incubators and science parks. This law essentially created a mandatory partnership between industries and academia fostering creativity.
In Nigeria, the presidential initiative to introduce entrepreneurship education in all tertiary institutions is a welcome development, the resolution was also made for the establishment of entrepreneurship centers in all Nigerian Universities. This further led to the introduction of entrepreneurship as a mandatory course for all Nigerian university students. Although the initiative is still new and may require some time before we begin to see any result of this initiative, if any, some lapses within the existing framework will hinder the ability of academic entrepreneurship to manifest and boost economic growth. The existing framework, if not addressed, will only be successful in creating more small business owners who have been forced into sole proprietorship because of the unemployment crisis. Instead, we should be aiming to produce creative entrepreneurial ventures or intrapreneurs who are providing disruptive innovation. We will review some of the lapses of participants within the existing framework.
Firstly, universities need to identify their speciality. Academic entrepreneurship is usually categorized into; Direct Academic Entrepreneurship (DAE) and Indirect Academic Entrepreneurship (IAE), which are indeed both required to achieve robust entrepreneurship development within a country. DAE is more focused on novel research, also called blue-sky research. This type of research is not immediately beneficial or commercially profitable today, but in years to come, it could create a competitive advantage for an industry or country. On the other hand, we have IAE, where the Nigerian entrepreneurship initiative scratches the surface, it focuses on entrepreneurship education and research experience leading to entrepreneurial actions, through university spin-offs and alumni start-ups. It is a good initiative for all universities to make entrepreneurship education mandatory because it opens the minds of students to think creatively, but it is also important for universities to know what they are good at. By identifying their specialty, they can attract their ideal students to the university, the government can also pre-determine the contribution the university is expected to render, and the government can determine the sort of resources and support needed by the university.
Secondly, academic entrepreneurship cannot function properly without input from industries and government. Traditionally, the industry was responsible for economic production, the university was for knowledge generation and transfer, while the government acted as a facilitator, regulator, and co-investor. Today things are different, the simultaneous strategic interactions between the three elements are essential in fostering innovation, the knowledge economy, and economic growth. What we see in most nations geared towards academic entrepreneurship are corporate sponsoring of research projects for new technology, outsourcing of research needs or cooperative and collaborative research, the provision of trans-disciplinary research centers, and joint laboratories. In the United Kingdom, Warwick University in 1980 created an academic department called WMG, which is focused on knowledge transfer, engineering, manufacturing, and technology. They have created collaborations with Jaguar Land Rover automotive worth over £100m, they have further invested in the building of the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC). It is a hub for Jaguar Land Rover’s advanced research and equipped with laboratories, virtual engineering suites, visualization/prototyping activities, etc. This centre will allow its students to create and test ideas for new products, and get industry insight from real-life players. If industry giants invest in quality resources such as business incubators and technology parks for students and faculty members, they will contribute to the research and development of new products within that industry. Thereafter, we should see university members generating technological change by doing-based learning to absorb existing techniques of operation and reverse engineer obtaining new technological know-how, followed by forward engineering to stimulate product improvements and promote knowledge diffusion.
Furthermore, the government’s focus and attention are paramount in structuring a viable academic entrepreneurship structure. Universities fostering academic entrepreneurship must have a transfer technology office (TTO). TTO’s are designed to provide essential services on the process of commercializing and patenting new technologies, ideas, or research. They are also critical to the creation of university spin-offs. Incentives such as government grants and research funding from ministries or government agencies are important to motivate students and faculty members to deliver on new ideas and technology. In Norway, FORNY is a program operated by the Research Council of Norway and receives funding, presently around $14 million annually, from five Norwegian ministries. The Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, and the Ministry of Education and Research; have been the primary sources of funding and can be regarded as the most important principals for FORNY. The funding is goal-oriented, ministries identify gaps in the market, it is taken to FORNY, and the funding is made available to the university for research and commercialization. The process is well regulated to produce results.
Lastly, the realignment of the government’s goal for academic entrepreneurship is a necessity for accurate policy decisions. If the idea of academic entrepreneurship is viewed from an efficiency perspective, the policy will be geared towards the specialization of universities, and we will see policy initiatives transform into resourceful output in the economy. On the other hand, if it is viewed from an effective perspective policy initiatives will be more concerned with the number of universities offering an entrepreneurship course and the number of campuses that have an entrepreneurship building, without really assessing if the initiative is making any social impact and contributing to economic development, as it should.
Samuel T. Wabara
Samuel is a doctoral student of Entrepreneurship at the Ebonyi State University and former advisor to the governor of Abia state on industries
