The Role and Place of the Educator in the University Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: Russian Experience

The purpose of this study is to empirically identify the potential of contemporary educators involved in university entrepreneurship support initiatives as potential drivers of ecosystem development. This is achieved through an analysis of their key individual characteristics, professional experience, pedagogical practices, and the institutional context of the university environment. To this end, based on a questionnaire survey of 338 staff members from over 70 Russian universities engaged in university practices supporting entrepreneurship, a comparison was conducted between «successful» educators (whose students become entrepreneurs with relative regularity) and those for whom such cases are either entirely uncharacteristic or merely incidental. The results indicate that pedagogical effectiveness in the field of entrepreneurship is determined not by traditional academic credentials, but by experience in managing university or commercial projects (including corporate entrepreneurship), well-developed project management skills, and mentoring capabilities. Successful educators are more often associated with teaching in the social sciences and humanities, actively employ collaborative project-based learning, engage external experts, and integrate digital tools and artificial intelligence into the support of student initiatives. A key institutional factor is the university’s participation in the University Technological Entrepreneurship Platform (UTEP), which ensures the deep integration of the entrepreneurial ecosystem into the educational process. The study highlights the importance of considering the educator as a key element of a university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and points to the expediency of developing a comprehensive approach to the selection of educators, the support of their activities, and the formation of institutional conditions to accelerate the development of university entrepreneurship in Russia.

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