Round Table Discussion _ "Universités Entrepreneuriales: Regards Croisés"

The Faculty of Agriculture in collaboration with the Vice-Chancellor’s office of the University of Mauritius organised a Round Table discussion on the following theme: "Universités Entrepreneuriales: Regards Croisés", on the 19th April 2019.

The aim of the round table discussion was to obtain the perspective of Professor Messeghem, a visiting Professor and working together with Dr Brinda Ramasawmy of the Faculty of Agriculture, on how universities can engage in entrepreneurial activities based on his experience from LabEX Entreprendre in Montpellier and from other universities in France. The discussion centered on the Mauritian context and how UoM can go forward to promote itself as an entrepreneurial university and setting up of the AgriTECH Park.

Prof K. Messeghem and Dr. B. Ramasawmy

Prof Messeghem presented the LabEX Entreprendre in Montpellier and gave examples of entrepreneurial universities in France with best practices for creating the necessary conditions to prepare the youth to engage in entrepreneurial activities. He also discussed the entrepreneurial support ecosystem which he defines as a localized system, with socio-economic actors interacting and sharing a common goal. Specifically, it is composed of networks of political and institutional actors, support organizations, universities, professional associations and financial institutions that can meet the needs of incubatees. Its aim is the creation and development of firms and, more broadly, the creation of regional wealth. Together with Dr B. Ramsawmy, they presented the preliminary results on the Mauritian entrepreneurial ecosystem and its  SWOT. The Vice-Chancellor gave a talk on the entrepreneurial initiatives of the University of Mauritius.






The round table discussion focused on the model that UoM can use to become an entrepreneurial university and the role of the AgriTECH Park. One of the key elements that came out from the discussion is that we need to strengthen our Mauritian entrepreneurial ecosystem so that there are strong linkages among all stakeholders to favour the emergence of new start ups and engage more and more youth in developing entrepreneurial skills and new enterprises. It was also emphasised that we need to find the right balance between cooperation and competition among the various stakeholders in the ecosystems, hence the new term coopetition?

Coopetition is defined as the combination of two strategic behaviors that at first glance appear to be opposed: cooperation and competition (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1995). Coopetition in the entrepreneurial support ecosystem is marked by both intensifying competitive dynamics and a need for cooperation in order to meet the requirements of most public funders (Theodoraki and Messeghem, 2014).