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ISSN 1822-8402 EUROPEAN INTEGRATION STUDIES. 2007. No 1 
 
 

POLISH UNIVERSITIES CONTRIBUTION TO ACADEMIC 
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT* 

 
Aranka Ignasiak-Szulc 

Mariusz Czupich 
Nicolaus Copernicus University 

Faculty of European Integration and Regional 
Studies 

Abstract 

In the recent years there has taken place a kind of evolution of the role of universities in their local 
environment, the shift has been from teaching and research activities towards more involvement in the 
regional social and economic development. A relatively new form of university activity aimed at 
strengthening regional economy processes are academic business incubators. They are to offer their 
support to those students and academics that are planning to set up their own businesses and face the 
marketplace. The purpose of the article is to present how Polish Universities encourage students to realize 
their own business concepts and assist them in overcoming barriers that appear on this way. The role of 
universities is to offer help at the stage of initiating the business that is the most difficult for young 
entrepreneurs. This cooperation contributes to building the regional connections and relations network 
that leads to the creation of the business environment.  

Keywords: 

Universities; Entrepreneurship; Incubators. 

* The article is based on the results of the research project: Transition and the Development of the 
Economic Co-operation in the Eastern Borderland of Poland in the Context of European Integration, 
financed with state budget funds in 2005-2007 (grant no H02C 113 28 and 1 H02C 088 29)

Introduction 

In a modern economy the process of creating 
knowledge is considered as one of the determinants of 
economic development. The capital of knowledge 
held by the company is not only an important factor in 
the production, it is also a basis for implementing 
internal innovations which determine the achievement 
of competitive advantages. Universities, being 
research and service centres for supporting 
innovations in companies and places of gaining 
unique skills by the students, are the source of 
knowledge capital at the local level. Furthermore, 
higher education facilities are perceived today as 
institutions which should support the initiation and 
development of economic life. In this way they are 
participating in the creation of territorial resources 
which constitute an indispensable base for the growth 
processes. 

This paper will focus on the university activity in 
the area of entrepreneurship promotion and 
developing beginner forms of business activity in 
Poland. The article will use examples of academic 

business incubators to show growing role of 
universities in the regional development. 

Academic entrepreneurship and institutional 
forms of its support  

Over the last dozen or so years we could observe 
the evolution of the universities’ role in the local 
environment from education and research activities 
towards a stronger engagement in the regional, social 
and economic development. The institutions of higher 
learning changed their nature. In the past, they 
provided knowledge and mainly conducted basic 
research which had only an indirect connection with 
the industry. As the time passed they started to engage 
more and more in various economic projects in the 
cooperation with companies, such as providing 
research or training on order. This way universities 
managed to combine the theoretical aspect of their 
activity with practice. At the same time, spreading the 
idea of entrepreneurship in the academic society 
became an important part of their activity. The main 
aim of such activities is the increase of consciousness 

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in the scope of initiating and developing their own 
economic enterprises. Undoubtedly for students and 
scientific personnel the very idea of being enterprising 
is not a sufficient condition for establishing one’s own 
business. They often lack essential experience and 
knowledge necessary to establish their own company. 
It is often the case that outstanding scientists are 
unable to move around in the world of business and 
students with interesting ideas are lost in the tangle of 
bureaucracy and incomprehensible legal regulations. 
Access to a wide financial, legal and consulting 
assistance creates a chance for such people and it is 
offered by the academic entrepreneurship support 
infrastructure. 

In the beginning it is worth presenting the notion 
of an academic entrepreneurship, for it is appearing 
more and more often in the literature connected with 
the regional development, transfer of technology and 
innovations. In a general view the academic 
entrepreneurship is the engagement of scientific 
facilities, auxiliary and administration personnel, PhD 
students and students in the economic activity. And in 
a narrower sense it refers to the engagement of a 
scientific personnel in establishing new companies – 
so called spin-out (Innowacje i transfer technologii, 
2005). In Europe the notion of an academic 
entrepreneurship refers to any activity supporting the 
relations between science and industry, as well as the 
pre-incubation and incubation processes for newly 
established companies. In the United States, as a result 
of a higher level of entrepreneurship within the 
society, this concept is mainly connected with 
companies created by scientific personnel using new 
technological solutions. The United States are at the 
same time an unchallenged leader in granting support 
to business initiatives originating at universities. The 
substantial influence that American universities have 
on promoting entrepreneurship and the transfer of 
knowledge to economic practice is to a large degree 
the result of the Bayh - Dole Act implemented in 
1980. Regulations of this Act enabled universities to 
retain patents for solutions invented at their 
laboratories using federal means. Universities may 
license the inventions to companies and gain fees for 
them, which are divided also for the creators of new 
solutions. The Act encouraged universities to engage 
in research and technology transfer. Companies have 
become more eager to purchase technologies 
developed by scientists, to develop them and 
implement into production processes, thanks to which 
new products are becoming more competitive on the 
international market. Legal regulations favouring 
innovations caused a real boom for establishing 
companies using the results of scientific research held 
at universities, especially in the 1990’s. Many new 
companies were established, some of which were the 
initiatives taken up by the employees of universities 

and students. In the years 2001 – 2002 licences 
granted to newly established companies made up 12% 
of the total number of licences granted by American 
and Canadian universities, and other research 
institutions (Nielsen, 2004). Large demand from the 
industry led to the creation of entrepreneurship 
incubators and technology transfer offices at the 
universities for servicing companies interested in the 
cooperation. This received support of the state 
authorities, which actively participated in the 
promotion of creation of transfer offices and 
incubators. The result of these activities was the 
development of model solutions for the interaction of 
universities with the industry. Thanks to them many 
new companies were established which substantially 
influenced the increase of the level of innovativeness 
of American economy.  

First concepts of entrepreneurship incubators in 
Western Europe appeared in mid 1970’s. They were 
treated as a tool for the creation of alternative 
workplaces and development of post-industrial 
facilities in the regions suffering from a structural 
crisis (Matusiak, Stawasz, 1998). Over time they 
started to change their designation in the direction of 
supporting the companies created by young people. 
Also, the changing trends in economy and transfer to 
the more technically advanced production, caused that 
some of the incubators started to offer their support to 
innovative companies, using the results of research in 
such branches as teleinformatics, microelectronics or 
biomedical engineering. The result of a quick 
development of entrepreneurship in various economic 
branches was the extension of infrastructure 
supporting this process. Technological centres, 
scientific, training and consulting, and other centres 
were established beside entrepreneurship incubators 
and technology transfer offices. In the developed 
countries the technology transfer and support of 
business creation process is characterised by a variety 
of organisational forms. In Great Britain such 
institutions as industrial liaison offices in academic 
centres, academic personnel consortiums or teaching 
groups, in which graduates work on specific research 
projects (Sosnowska, Poznańska, 2003), have 
developed.  And in France the organisations mediating 
between laboratories and entrepreneurs, and creating 
and coordinating networks are innovation and 
technological transfer centres (Centres Regionaux et 
de Transfer de Technologie – CRITT) (Sosnowska, 
Poznańska, 2003). In addition to the mentioned 
organisational forms, in practice one might encounter 
career offices and science and technology parks. 
Career offices are helping students and graduates in 
moving around on the employment market and 
promote entrepreneurship through training, 
conferences and workshops on business-plan creation 
and establishing their own businesses. The activity of 

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science and technology parks is more complex then 
the previously mentioned centres. They are a 
cooperation platform for innovative companies, 
science and research institutions (including 
universities) and business training, consulting and 
financial institutions. Technological parks often 
combine the function of a technology transfer centre 
and technological incubator. A specific characteristic 
of the park is the fact that its full offer is aimed only at 
enterprises characterised with innovativeness and 
using the latest scientific achievements. 

Academic entrepreneurship incubators 
in Poland 

Entrepreneurship incubators started to appear in 
Poland at the beginning of 1990’s, and although they 
were created at universities, they were not aimed 
directly at the academic society. The increase in the 
number of incubators in the following years was the 
result of the realisation of ,,TOR #10 Small Business 
Development Project’’. The main goal of this project, 
co-financed by the World Bank, was to propagate the 
development of entrepreneurship and actively 
counteract the unemployment (Matusiak, Mażewska, 
Zasiadły, 2005). Even though, in 1998 there were 45 
entrepreneurship incubators active in Poland, most of 
them were not academic entrepreneurship incubators 
(AEI). Academic entrepreneurship incubators are a 
specific type of traditional incubators, however their 
offer is directed to students and scientific personnel 
who want to set up their own businesses and try their 
hand at the market activities. Academic incubators 
differ from the traditional ones in that they are treated 
as a prolongation of the didactic process by the 
possibility of establishing a company and its practical 
operation on the market as well as verification of the 
knowledge and skills gained (Guliński, Zasiadły, 
2005). What is more, AEI conduct entrepreneurship 
education, allow to commercialize products and 
technologies developed at the universities, they 
provide access to university laboratories and research 
equipment and facilitate the direct usage of the 
knowledge of scientific personnel and students. 

A broader interest in the subject of AEI surfaced 
in 2004 at dozen or so universities and among the 
activists of a Student Business Centre Club Forum. 
Then a problem has arisen connected with the 
possibilities of creating academic entrepreneurship 
support structures by the universities. At that time 
Polish legislation did not define academic 
entrepreneurship incubators or technology transfer 
centres, thus the modes of establishing them by the 
universities and rules of their operation were not 
specified. It was only the Act of 27 July 2005 on 
Higher Learning Facilities that filled the existing gap. 
Article 4 item 4 of the Act specifies the possibility of 
cooperation of a university with the economic 

environment through the sale or free transfer of 
research results to the entrepreneurs, as well as 
spreading the idea of entrepreneurship within the 
academic society in the form of a separate business. 
The form and scope of such a business should reflect 
the regulations included in the university statute 
(Article 7). This way the Act extends the meaning of 
regulations included in the statutes of higher learning 
facilities. This means that through internal regulations 
the universities may shape their own character and the 
pro-innovative attitude. One of possibilities of 
supporting entrepreneurship is included in Article 86 
of the Act which states that universities may run  
academic entrepreneurship incubators “for the 
purpose of supporting economic activity within the 
academic society and students who are 
entrepreneurs”, as well as technology transfer centres 
for “the sale or free transfer of research and 
development work results for business”. The facilities 
mentioned may be created in the form of a trade 
company, fund or a general university unit. In this last 
case it is subject to the regulations approved by the 
university senate.  

At the turn of 2004 and 2005 universities showed 
a great deal of activity creating 30 AEI. Almost half 
of them was established through the Student Business 
Centre Club Forum and Academic Entrepreneurship 
Incubators Foundation (Matusiak, 2005). The 
Foundation is the headquarters for a dozen or so 
incubators which were created at universities all over 
Poland. Students with an idea for an economic activity 
have a possibility of presenting them through special 
competitions and meetings organized by the 
incubators. The Foundation concludes a contract with 
selected persons specifying the terms and conditions 
of entering and leaving the centre. Young 
entrepreneurs do not need to gain their individual 
legal status as they are acting in the incubator as part 
of the Foundation. Thanks to this they avoid costs 
connected with the company registration and paying 
taxes. Any fees connected with the operation of the 
incubator are covered by the Foundation. The 
companies are obliged to cover the costs of staying in 
the incubator only after a few months, however the 
level of payments increases with the length of stay. 
The company may function in the incubator for a 
maximum of 3 years. After gaining independence and 
leaving the incubator economic units share a part of 
their profits with the incubator for a period equal to 
the length of stay in the incubator. The most buoyant 
incubators operating within the Foundation are centres 
at the Economic University in Wrocław and 
Universities in Gdańsk and Warsaw (Guliński, 
Zasiadły, 2005).  

The role of academic incubators is the aid in 
business initiation. To fulfil this task they are using a 
wide range of instruments, which include among 

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ISSN 1822-8402 EUROPEAN INTEGRATION STUDIES. 2007. No 1 

 

others technical and patent consulting services, 
financing, access to university laboratories and 
research equipment, scientific research and to 
databases on inventors, patents and technologies. The 
scope of the offered support is very differentiated 

(table 1) and determined by the means at hand. It is 
worth noting that one of the most important is the 
human capital. It is the experience and qualifications 
of the personnel that usually decide on the success of 
an incubator.  

 
Table 1. Types of support granted by 16 chosen Polish incubators 

Type of support 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Consulting, information, courses 
training:  

Entrepreneurship, company 
establishment X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 

Business plan creation X X X X X X X X X X X X X X  X 
Technology and patents X X X   X    X  X     
Cooperation mediation X  X  X  X  X  X  X    
Finances, taxes X  X X    X X  X  X  X  
Bookkeeping, accounting X  X X X   X X  X  X X X  
Legal issues X X X X  X  X X X X X X X X  
Market analysis and marketing X  X X  X     X  X  X  
Informatics and computers X  X X  X  X   X  X X X  
HR management  X  X X     X    X    
Access to EU funds    X X X X X  X  X  X X X  
International trade and cooperation   X          X    
Implementation of new services and 
products  X X   X       X    

Business management  X  X        X  X  X  
Quality management  X  X          X    
Technical and service infrastructure:  
Reception, secretariat   X X X X     X  X   X 
Telephone exchange X  X X X X  X  X X X X    
Copying machine, fax  X X  X X  X X X X X X X   
Computer network X X X X X X  X X X X X X X  X 
Workshops / laboratories   X   X    X   X X   
Access to databases  X  X   X  X  X   X X   
Conference room X X X   X    X X X X X  X 
Financial support:  
Lending and guarantee funds               X  
Loans and loan mediation    X            X  
Cooperation with „business angels”   X        X   X   
Subsidies, grants, subventions   X  X X   X X X X X    
Venture capital   X              
1- Academic Economic Incubator at the University in Białystok  
2- Academic Economic Incubator at the Technology Transfer Office at Gdańsk University of Technology 
3- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator at the Technology Incubator of  Łódź University 
4- „Innowatik” Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator, Kraków  
5- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator, Kraków  
6- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator at Opole University of Technology 
7- Poznań Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator, Poznań  
8- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator at University of Information Technology and Management,  Rzeszów 
9- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator at Gdańsk University, Sopot 
10- Academic Entrepreneurship Bio-Incubator at the Agricultural University in Szczecin 
11- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator, Management and Services Economics Branch at Szczecin University  
12- Academic Technology Incubator at the University Technology Transfer Centre, Warszawa  
13- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator at Warsaw Agricultural University 
14- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator at Warsaw School of Information Technology 
15- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator at O. Lange Economic University, Wrocław  
16- Academic Entrepreneurship Incubator at Wrocław University 

Source: Own study on the basis of: Matusiak K.B., Zasiadły K., Koprowska-Skalska E., 
Początkiakademickich inkubatorów przedsiębiorczości [in:] Matusiak K.B. (ed.), Ośrodki Innowacji w 
Polsce, PARP, SOOIPP, Poznań, Warszawa 2005, pp. 128-145. 

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As it turns out from the presented data most of 
the incubators support potential entrepreneurs at the 
stage of pre-incubation including the shaping of 
business-like attitudes, gaining knowledge on 
company establishment and support in business plan 
creation. Academic lecturers play a major part in 
instilling the spirit of entrepreneurship among young 
people. They transfer the basic knowledge concerning 
company functioning mechanisms. Students learn how 
the market works, how to move around it and what to 
do to be competitive. Basic information gained in this 
scope help them realise their own business ideas. 
Further aid offered in the incubator is of a practical 
character. Most of the analysed incubators provide 
consulting as well as accounting and legal services, 
which is very desired by young people because of the 
level of complication of regulations and difficulties 
connected with it. Another advantage of such a 
solution is the fact that the entrepreneurs, being 
relieved from the need to keep their accounting, may 
spend more time on the development of their products 
and services and on searching for new outlets. The 
most widespread form of support taken up by the 
analysed incubators is the help in access to the EU 
funds. EU funds offer support which should be 
supplemented with one’s own means. It should be 
noted here that establishing innovative business by 
persons who do not have market experience is 
connected with a big risk. This fact is the main 
obstacle in obtaining a bank loan for business 
development. Lack of financial means is the most 
frequent problem of entrepreneurs developing their 
business. In this scope, an underdeveloped financial 
support system is a weakness of the incubators. Lack 
of cooperation with venture capital or business angels 
funds causes that young businessmen suffer from the 
lack of means, especially in the early development 
stages of the business. Furthermore, another frequent 
comments made about incubators refer to the quality 
of the offered training and courses (Preparation and 
Carrying Out Research..., Research Report, 2005). 
The complaints of entrepreneurs concern situations 
when not all the training courses promised while the 
company was entering the incubator are actually 
carried out and if they are, it is often by trainers of 
inadequate competence whose approach to the 
training is far too theoretical, the information they 
present is also easily found in available publications. 
There is no analysis of specific situations and 
problems and case studies that might bring more 
insight into the activities of young entrepreneurs.  

Besides the support types listed in table 1 offered 
by Polish incubators in practice one might also 
encounter such actions as: organization of 
competitions and programmes aimed at enterprising 
students and scientific personnel, entrepreneurship 

clubs or trainings for students at companies 
cooperating with the incubator. 

Advantages resulting from the activity 
of universities for the benefit of academic 
entrepreneurship 

The engagement of universities in the creation 
and functioning of entrepreneurship incubators is a 
process giving benefit not only to the academic 
society but also in the wider regional scope. Their 
influence on the activation of the local population, 
who often find employment thanks to the newly 
established companies, is unquestioned. The main 
advantage of such type of activities is the stimulation 
of the innovative society. The existence of a local 
society with enterprising and innovative 
characteristics is conditioning the establishment of 
companies. The key elements in this process are the 
relations and various cooperation ties between the 
scientific and economic societies which, if 
consistently developed, cause the creation of specific 
competences, knowledge and behaviour. The 
universities fill a new role consisting in shaping the 
enterprising consciousness and providing conditions 
for its development. Some of the aspects of this 
activity are combined projects of universities and 
companies which include training and research 
projects with the participation of students and 
scientific personnel. While conducting research for 
industry the process of learning is conducted as well. 
This means that if one company orders a specific 
service then the university creates a pattern of 
proceedings, it organizes an appropriate set of 
instruments (organizational, consulting, research), 
essential for the realisation of the service. This way a 
certain kind of know-how is developed which will be 
used while solving technical problems for other 
companies. The result of this process is the increase of 
the level of services rendered and their greater 
comprehensiveness. Moreover the cooperation with 
companies gives the universities access to practice. 
Thanks to this it is possible to transfer this experience 
to their own benefit and improve the incubator’s 
operation by implementation of new instruments and 
services. 

Scientific employees, graduates and students with 
innovative ideas for their own business may make 
them come true through the establishment of 
companies and using incubator support offered by the 
universities. The scale of popularity of such activities 
is the fact that by the end of 2005 in the 15 incubators 
gathered in the Academic Entrepreneurship Incubators 
Foundation there were 150 new companies 
established, 800 young people applied for 
cooperation, and the companies already operating 
generated PLN 2 million of income (in 2005) (Żuk, 
2005). One should also ask what kind of benefit is 

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there for the universities from the activity of 
incubators. Well, besides making their educational 
offer more attractive, they are also receiving financial 
means by way of renting their rooms and laboratories. 
Other benefits include (Guliński, Zasiadły, 2005): 

• the improvement of relations with the local 
population and business; 

• increase of income from the cooperation and 
technology transfer to graduate companies; 

• increase of orders for research and winning 
sponsors for research activity; 

• the improvement of the image of the 
university; 

• gaining additional means from 
entrepreneurship support programmes; 

• the demonstration effect – this solution is 
accessible for everyone; 

A resilient university with numerous economic 
ties has what it takes to attract skilled students and 
experienced scientists. Then it becomes one of the key 
factors deciding on the attractiveness of a specific 
region. 

Conclusions 

Thanks to the engagement of universities in the 
promotion and support of entrepreneurship they are 
considered as the driving force behind economic and 
social development of the region1. Universities 
encourage students to realise their own business 
concepts, assisting them in overcoming obstacles 
connected with them. The cooperation between 
science and industry enables to create a network of 
relations in the region leading to the creation of an 
enterprising society and increasing its competitiveness 
at the same time. Polish incubators are young 
organisations which have not yet developed all 
services (e.g. cooperation with venture capital funds). 
It is expected that the legislative changes introduced 
will evoke yet greater engagement of universities in 
the creation and development of infrastructure 
supporting the academic entrepreneurship and 
students, scientific employees and graduates will 
make use of the offered facilities and more willingly 
engage themselves in the business activity. 

 

                                                 
1To stress the role played by higher schools in the economy it is 
worth citing the comment put in the American report of the 
Boston bank from 1997 r. All companies established by 
employees and graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, which operated in 1997, employed in total 1,1 million 
people and had an annual sale ca. 232 billion USD. This amount 
was close to gross national product of the Republic of South 
Africa and Thailand from 1996!, after: J. G. Wissema, 
Technostarters and the Third Generation University, Materials of 
the National Conference ,,Academic Entrepreneurship in Poland – 
Perspective of Development’’, Warsaw 19 May 2006. 

References 

Act of 27 July 2005 on Higher Learning Facilities, J/L 
05.164.1365. 

Guliński J., Zasiadły K. (ed.) (2005), Innowacyjna 
przedsiębiorczość akademicka - światowe 
doświadczenia, PARP, Warszawa, pp. 29, 30, 32. 

Innowacje i transfer technologii – słownik pojęć 
(2005), PARP, Warszawa, pp. 131-132. 

Matusiak K. B. (ed.) (2005), Ośrodki innowacji w 
Polsce, PARP, SOOIPP, Poznań/Warszawa, pp. 
123-124, 128-145. 

Matusiak K. B., Mażewska M., Zasiadły K. (2005), 
Rozwój lokalnych systemów wspierania 
przedsiębiorczości. Instytucje Projektu Rozwoju 
Małej Przedsiębiorczości TOR #10 po dziesięciu 
latach, Ministerstwo Gospodarki i Pracy, 
Warszawa. 

Matusiak K. B., Stawasz E. (ed.) (1998), 
Przedsiębiorczość i transfer technologii. Polska 
perspektywa, Żyrardowskie Stowarzyszenie 
Wspierania Przedsiębiorczości, Łódź – 
Żyrardów, p. 137. 

Nielsen L. L., A US Perspective on Technology 
Transfer: The Changing Role of the University, 
,,Nature Reviews’’, March 2004, vol. 5, p. 1. 

Preparation and Carrying Out Research on the 
Support of Academic Entrepreneurship 
Development  in Poland in the Scope of the 
Transfer of Technology and Innovations. 
Research Report (2005), in Polish, PPNT- 
Foundation of Adam Mickiewicz University, 
Poznań, pp. 130-131. 

Sosnowska A., Poznańska K., Łobejko S., Brdulak J., 
Chinowska K. (2003), Systemy wspierania 
innowacji i transferu technologii w krajach Unii 
Europejskiej i w Polsce. Poradnik 
przedsiębiorcy, PARP, Warszawa, p. 124. 

Żuk D., Akademickie inkubatory przedsiębiorczości 
(2005), Materials of the National Conference 
,,Academic Entrepreneurship in Poland – 
Perspective of Development’’, Warsaw 19 May.

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