This important section focusses on the study findings with discussions and interpretations. However, table (3) below describes the means and standard deviations, sorted in descending order according to the mean values, of the total degrees of the themes of entrepreneurship at PPU.
The results showed that the levels of the curriculum and the labor market, community relations and partnerships, the academic exchange, the culture of entrepreneurship, and the entrepreneurial education themes are high However, the levels of themes regarding the university’s internationalization, regulations, and policies, scientific research and innovations, leadership, and the environment are moderate. This can be seen from the table above.
By answering the question regarding the reality of entrepreneurship at PPU from the senior and middle management perspective, the researcher believes that the highest mean emerged in the curriculum and labor market theme which was (3.8). This result needs PPU to recognize that this theme has the greatest importance in the university’s priorities to be an entrepreneurial university. Therefore, the university needs to pay attention to developing curricula that are compatible with the labor market needs due to its significant impact on the university's entrepreneurship and development. The analysis showed that the university pays specific attention to its relations and partnership with the community segments. As a result, these relations affect positively the university’s reputation and help to increase the university’s finance through constructing many campuses and a new building that benefits the university, students, and staff.
As for the entrepreneurial education theme; the researcher believes that it has high attention at PPU because the university strives to do the best possible in education to maintain certain objectives. Moreover, most of the lecturers attempt to use modern tools in the teaching process, and there is a good concern about the flipped teaching and eLearning. On the other hand, The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at PPU conducts continuous training and workshops in the teaching and learning process at PPU. This shows how PPU pays great attention to entrepreneurial education.
From the researcher’s view; the theme of the university’s policies and regulations has a moderate level because the concept of entrepreneurship is a modern one, and the university does not possess a model towards the transformation into an entrepreneurial university. Consequently, this study will assist in constructing an appropriate model that suits the Palestinian situations and universities. However, the results showed that the lowest percentage was for the theme of university’s environment that scored a mean of (3,1). This explains the approval of the most of workers in the middle and senior management that this theme is less important in the university because of physical constraints that face the university due to the lack of financial support from the Palestinian government. The researcher illustrates this in more detail at the end of this chapter, more specifically in the analysis of the interview conducted with the president of the PPU.
Table (4) below is a ranking question that shows the elements ranking for a transition into an entrepreneurial university in order of importance, ranking the most important 1, the next 2, and so on. The results show that the most important requirements necessary to transform PPU into an entrepreneurial university are: university’s leadership and entrepreneurship culture with relative frequencies of: 0.32 and 0.29 respectively. Whereas the academic exchange is the least important requirement with a relative frequency of: 0.03 from the perspective of the senior and middle management at PPU.
Figure (1) illustrates the priorities of the university requirements that are required for the transformation of PPU into an entrepreneurial university, which is based on the results of the third question of this study, and form the perspective of senior and middle management. It shows that a university’s leadership is the most important requirement for the university, while the academic exchange is the least important one.
Figure (2) shows the pairwise comparison between respondents’ perspectives towards university’s leadership theme according to the current job shows that there is a significant difference between the head of the academic department and vice president, in addition to the difference between the head of the academic department and the university president, with P-values: .010, .041 respectively, which is less than the significance level (α = .05).
Figure (3) shows the pairwise comparison between respondents’ perspectives towards university’s environment theme, according to the current job, shows that there is a significant difference between the vice president and [head of academic department, center director and deans], with P-values: .009, .016, .048 respectively, which is less than the significance level (α = .05).
Figure (4) shows the pairwise comparison between respondents’ perspectives towards university’s internationalization theme, according to the current job, shows that there is a significant difference between the vice president and [center director and head of academic department], with P-values : ).008, .009( respectively, which is less than the significance level (α = .05).
According to the previous results, it can be noticed that PPU has the willingness to be an entrepreneurial university. It attempts, as much as possible, to reach this trend despite the restriction of the financial item. Additionally, it tries to do entrepreneurial activities and concerns on the aspects that can raise its development and reputation by continuing in its vision of entrepreneurship in the light of the existing financial problem. The researcher adopts the results and concludes that the university should continue with the entrepreneurship concept gradually depending on the reality of the actual situation of PPU as appeared from the responses of the senior and middle management. It is worth mentioning that PPU is a Palestinian university, which has a special situation due to the Israeli occupation.
In summary of all of the abovementioned survey and interview findings, figure (5) below shows the steps required for the transition of PPU into an entrepreneurial university, organized in ascending order and based on the researcher’s perspective.
However, the results of the One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis test regarding the differences show that there is a significant difference between respondents’ evaluation of the curriculum and the labor market criteria, with P-value:.000 which is less than the significance level (α = .05). Also, the means were not equal for (1) respondents’ evaluation of the entrepreneurial education criteria; (2) respondents’ evaluations regarding the university’s policies and regulation criteria; (3) the respondent's evaluation of the culture of entrepreneurship criteria; (4) respondents’ evaluation of the scientific research and innovations criteria; (5) respondents’ evaluation of the community’s relations and partnerships criteria; (6) respondents’ evaluation of the university’s environmental criteria; and (7) respondents’ evaluation of the university’s internationalization criteria.
In contrast, the results of ANOVA of the differences show that there are no significant differences between respondents’ evaluation of the university’s leadership criteria, with P-value: .182, which is larger than the significance level (α = .05). Also, the means were not equal for the respondent's evaluation of the university’s leadership criteria, and between respondents’ evaluation of the academic exchange criteria.
In light of the study results shown above, the university should go step by step in its entrepreneurship policy. It should start from the leadership by disseminating and spreading awareness about the culture of entrepreneurship throughout the university’s staff and students. In the next step, the university should focus on entrepreneurial education since it is a very important aspect for graduates who have innovative ideas that enable them to start their own startups. The university policies should be taken into account since they are the systematic way to achieve the goal of entrepreneurship, which is followed by the scientific research theme because the innovations resulted from the research are the basic point for any university to be a leading one. Moreover, the university’s environment would be the next step because it influences the achievements and efforts of students and staff. The university should focus more on its environment, which is considered as the eighth step, and since this environment is the mirror to the community, and needs to keep in pace with other leading universities externally. The ninth step would go for the university’s relations and partnership, which are important to increase the cooperation agreements between the university and community, and can develop w the curricula and majors to suit the needs of the community and labor market. Academic exchange, which is important to increase experiences between the university and leading universities abroad would be the last step for the transition of the university into an entrepreneurial one.
On the other hand, the questionnaire's findings show that there are differences between the responses of the senior and middle management, which means the closer the current work is to the senior management, the more the answers will be different, as the employees in the senior management differ their point of views on the reality of entrepreneurship in the University, given their broader authorities in leadership, decision-making, developing plans and the University's vision, in addition to the external and international dealings. This explains the different responses in the themes of university leadership, university environment, and internationalization. It also reveals that the PPU lacks a systematic methodology to align curricula with the labor market's needs. This is due to the Palestinian industry limited to local industries, with low competitiveness in this issue as the Palestinian situation is constantly changing.
The findings also show that the PPU faces' financial crisis had caused a decrease in the percentage of financial incentives given to employees in exchange for the pioneering results obtained. These incentives are limited to the ones received through funded projects, where most of these projects are subject to the donors' terms and not to PPU needs. In contrast, the PPU's scientific researches are in a step towards progress despite the existing obstacles. Furthermore, it was shown that linking research results with the labor market's needs by creating innovative companies affiliated with the PPU would require a complete system to follow the practical research, a general policy to encourage scientific research, and approval from the High Authority in Palestine.
One of the main findings shows that PPU has a limited role in converting theoretical research outputs into practical innovations. This is because scientific research needs to be financed and allocated a specific budget and risky. After all, the results may not achieve the required goal. On the other hand, the contribution of the community's relations and partnerships in financing PPU projects was limited to finance the infrastructure and does not go for the University to improve its environment. However, the University is trying to pursue its vision of entrepreneurship within the existing context despite the financial hardship.
Regarding the PPU's scholarships offered for faculty members to study at leading universities worldwide, it was found that there is no scholarship system in the University because this issue is related to the financial aspect in addition to lack of governmental support for this issue.