LAUSR

Abstract Recent studies suggest that a growing number of universities are embracing the notion that sustainability should and can be integrated into the university support system for entrepreneurship, or that sustainability activities should be implemented and promoted with entrepreneurial spirit. This finding relates positively to the demands by policy makers that sustainable entrepreneurship should be addressed in (higher) education, to prepare the mind-set of future “green entrepreneurs”. But there are hardly any insights concerning how an appropriate university system should be designed and which factors influence the emergence and implementation of university support systems for sustainable entrepreneurship. We address this research gap by means of a qualitative multi-case study approach. Based on 41 good practice examples, we carried out in-depth case studies investigating four universities based in the USA and Germany. Our results indicate that the four areas of potential influence derived from theory and the literature (environmental context, institutional framework, key persons and external interaction) are actually relevant. The case studies support the assumption that the role of key persons as initiators, promoters or networkers is of outstanding importance. In addition to the four areas of influence derived from theory and literature, the four case studies indicated that there are further relevant factors. It was possible to identify three additional fields of influence: (1) Core activities for developing university support systems (research or implementation projects, dialogue processes), (2) the organizational history and competencies background of universities and (3) student interest and demand. While the question why sustainable entrepreneurship should be supported by higher education institutions is clearly answered, there are hardly any insights concerning how an appropriate university system should be designed and which factors influence the emergence and implementation of university support systems for sustainable entrepreneurship.