Entrepreneurship and Engineers: developing an entrepreneurial mindset in High technology industry

Purpose – This paper aims to present an innovative approach to enable the creation of entrepreneurial attitudes in engineers and scientists in the domain of high technologies such as tissue engineering, nanotechnologies for human health and ICTs for product/services design. The Model arises from an ongoing experimentation launched by a Technological District located in Apulia Region in the South of Italy, strategically projected in the future to operate as an ecosystem to stimulate Innovative Entrepreneurship in the local context. Design/methodology/approach – In the paper we adopt a method based on a case study (Eisenhardt, 1989) to explore the processes that influence successful development of entrepreneurial competence in Engineering field. The case study describes the first results of an innovative experimentation related to five post graduate education and research programs launched by a technological District Dhitech created by the Italian Government in the South of Italy in 2005 (in the Apulia Region, exactly) to promote innovation, to create, diffuse and share knowledge for technology entrepreneurship capability, so increasing the competitiveness of the Region. Originality/value – The article provides an integrated framework for the creation of the Entrepreneurship perspectives in high technology industry in a Region where the resources for innovation and entrepreneurship are not generated spontaneously. The work start from the analysis of Apulia Region Innovation index, in order to demonstrate the real usefulness of the model in a Region where the development of initiatives and projects to diffuse Entrepreneurial attitudes is still in infancy. Practical implications – From a theory perspective, the identification of the phases for activating high tech entrepreneurship process is an attempt to advance the discussion on strategies for entrepreneurship education in non-business studies, with a particular focus on high technology domain such as: nanotechnology, biotechnology and tissue engineering, ICTs for innovative product and service design. Formal education programs and Academic-Business initiatives in entrepreneurship education targeted for non-business studies are still in infancy in Italian Higher Education systems and especially in South Regions. For practitioners, the article gives evidence about a “process based curriculum” to instil an entrepreneurial perspective in scientist and engineers.