Assessing innovation and entrepreneurship transformations in two South African universities amidst the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to contribute to an understanding of the role universities’ innovation and entrepreneurship transforming structures play during a crisis. To suggest the use of the adapted Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) model that will guide the interdepartmental and intradepartmental collaboration processes concerning innovation and entrepreneurship at the two universities during a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic 2019 (COVID-19). An inductive-deductive, mixed-method approach was adopted, entailing an online survey and semi-structured interviews. The population for the study included employees from two South African Universities, and random sampling and purposive sampling were applied, respectively, for the survey and semi-structured interviews. Survey data were analyzed using SPSS and semi-structured interview data were analyzed using Nvivo 12. The results show that both universities’ transforming structures need to improve their intra and inter-departmental collaborative approach to maximize innovation and entrepreneurship during a crisis like COVID-19. The contribution of this article is a suggested model that draws from the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and Institutional Theory. The model is to guide the interdepartmental and intradepartmental collaboration processes to ensure university transforming structures lead through innovative and entrepreneurial solutions during crises.