The online promotion of university entrepreneurship centres

Entrepreneurship centres are increasingly common on university campuses, but their organizational survival depends on their ability to continuously secure resources and support from a range of internal and external stakeholders. Like other non-departmental centers and institutes in universities, the ability of such units to survive and thrive depends on their legitimacy. This study examined how entrepreneurship centres use online promotion through websites and social media as part of their efforts to ascertain their status and standing. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with entrepreneurship centre leaders at 12 universities located in a range of settings across Canada, and an analysis of websites and Twitter feeds, this study identifies multiple relevant patterns. There is a clear gap between the principles of strategic communications espoused by centre leadership and actual practice. Further, entrepreneurship centres use social media to broadcast promotional messages that resonate with broader university and social values but do not leverage interactivity tools and possibilities. Their promotional efforts foreground images of success and positive experiences associated with entrepreneurial learning. While there is overlap in the stakeholders they consider important for their promotional efforts, centres located in large metropolitan areas differed from their counterparts in smaller cities in their external outlook. As entrepreneurship centres tend to remain reliant on contingent support from multiple sources, more intentional efforts to communicate their attributes and achievements might be fruitful.