Promoting Entrepreneurial Culture in the University: The Institutional Collaborative Model at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

This paper presents a case of collaboration between different types of public services and the private sector for the promotion of an entrepreneurial culture. This collaboration is achieved by means of a centre established and developed by the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, the Centro de Iniciativas Emprendedoras (the Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives, CIADE). Since its creation CIADE has, because of a lack of university-allocated financial resources, been collaborating with a wide range of organizations in accordance with the Triple Helix model, including three levels of public administration (national, regional and local), several private businesses and different corporate civic bodies (mostly corporate foundations). CIADE's principal, distinctive attributes, with regard to the Triple Helix, are collaboration, self-financing, project management and a horizontal hierarchical structure which allows rapid accommodation of and adaptation to the changing circumstances of its environment. (Contains 6 tables.)