4.3.3. Training-Related Factors

Table 4 shows the correlations between training-related factors and the other factors. Let us first recall the relationships identified with the factors analysed previously:


In short, Training-related factors showed the highest and most numerous correlations among all the factors. Despite this, they revealed low or no correlations with external contextual factors. In contrast, these factors were found to have the highest correlations with resource-related factors, which were lower and less frequent for other factors; and with structural factors, the most significant being the relationships between training for faculty staff and support from the management team with both curricular and extra-curricular training. Both of these tended to have the highest correlation with the other factors and therefore were the most sensitive to the influence of the remaining factors.

#### **5. Discussion and Conclusions**

As a conclusion, in the following figure, Figure 1, the main relations between factors found in the research can be seen. Factors have been grouped in external/contextual factors, resources and process factors, this last one including projects, structures and training processes. Factors in bold have been found as most associated to other factors of the model. These are: Entrepreneurship funding, training in entrepreneruship for faculty staff, mission and strategy, support from the management team, training and research in entrepreneurship and extra-curricular training. Arrows in bold indicate the most relevant relationships.

As it can be observed in Figure 1, external/context factors are mainly associated with training in entrepreneurship for faculty staff. Resources factors are mainly associated bilaterally to projects and training processes. Projects are associated bilaterally to structures and also training processes. It could be highlighted that training processes factors show the highest and most numerous correlations among all the factors, except with external/context factors. Those factors were found to have the highest correlations with resources factors and with projects factors.

The findings of the study showed a weak relationship between context and the development of the entrepreneurial university. The minimal influence of context was an unexpected result, since numerous studies had found precisely the opposite, namely that there was a strong relationship between the legal, administrative and economic context within which a university was placed and its entrepreneurial development [33–35]. This finding may be explained by the low scores obtained by the contextual variables in this study, or by universities relying on their own resources for entrepreneurial endeavours, thus demonstrating their autonomy. The legal and business context has traditionally had a very low level of development in Spain, and the tendency to greater awareness and support of entrepreneurship is only recent. This has been reflected in Spanish Law 14/2013, on support for entrepreneurs and their internationalisation [42], and others passed at a regional level, including Law 3/2018, on the promotion of Entrepreneurship in Andalusia and Law 16/2012, on support for entrepreneurs and small-sized enterprises in the Basque Country. It seems necessary to explore this aspect further; particularly, it would be interesting to assess the impact of this new framework in the medium- and long-term.

**Figure 1.** Factors of influence of the entrepreneurial university.

Contrary to what could be expected, the factors related to universities' resources seemed to be minimally related to external context factors, although they were found to be related to the entrepreneurship processes engaged in by universities. According to Hu [29], public and private funding is important for developing the entrepreneurial university, although this study did not identify a significant relationship between these two aspects. However, it was observed that resources were highly necessary for developing entrepreneurship; resources are to be understood not only in terms of financial provision, but also as human resources, including the involvement of professionals from the world of business and organisations in the design and delivery of the curriculum, and the increase in the numbers of faculty members with entrepreneurship training. It would appear that Spanish universities have compensated for the lack of external funding for entrepreneurship by utilising internal resources.

The projects related to entrepreneurship, which are crystallised into the mission, strategy, policies and procedures of universities, were found to be significantly associated with all of the entrepreneurship factors analysed. This was interesting, as it placed the documents that articulated the mission and strategy of universities in a very important position for developing entrepreneurship. Some studies have highlighted the importance of decision making in terms of entrepreneurship at strategic and organisational levels in the development of the entrepreneurial university [41]. Others have also stressed the influence of university policies, procedures and practices on academic entrepreneurial tasks [6].

Structures, conceived as the support from the management team and the organisational design of a university, were not among the most decisive factors for developing the entrepreneurial university as a whole. This is contrary to what could have been expected, since other studies have indicated that management teams play an essential role in promoting an entrepreneurial culture [11,43]. Nevertheless, these structures were positively associated with training and research processes, which in fact seemed to be strongly related to other factors for the development of the entrepreneurial university. Consequently, universities should consider them important and pay special attention to them. This is a highly significant finding, since training and research are core objectives of Spanish universities; and according to this study these processes are strongly related to, and have a great impact on, other factors in the development of the entrepreneurial university. As these training process factors have also been proven to be the most sensitive to the influence of the other factors characterising the entrepreneurial university, acting on any of them would have an effect on the development and improvement of entrepreneurship in education. The results of this study can be a good contribution for improvement of the Spanish entrepreneurial university and its impact on the sustainable economical and social development of the region.

**Author Contributions:** Funding acquisition, M.J.B.; Project administration, M.J.B. and J.P.; Investigation, M.J.B., A.G.-O., J.P.-C. and A.A.; Conceptualization, J.P.-C. and A.A.; Methodology, M.J.B., A.G.-O., J.P.-C. and A.A.; Formal analysis, J.P.-C. and A.G.-O.; Writing—original draft preparation, A.G.-O.; Writing—review and editing, M.J.B., A.G.-O., J.P.-C. and A.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Basque Government. Basic and Applied Research Projects. Project No. PI\_2015\_1\_92. The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Education, Language Policy and Culture of the Basque Government.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
