Ng, F., & Au, K. (2022). Entrepreneurship and innovation in a metropolis: Education and policy implications in Hong Kong. Journal of Product Innovation and Management, 39(4): 489-491.
Kevin Au and Frank Ng
2022
Ken Kahn in his “Catalyst: Innovation Is Not Entrepreneurship,nor Vice Versa” initiated an inspiring discussion of the concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation. Extending the idea, we propose such connections and differences also carry university education and policy implications. Below we summarize our thoughts based on our observations in Hong Kong. We agree with Ken’s argument that innovation and entrepreneurship are different conceptually and often not differentiated well by researchers and others, which may cause some inefficiency in program design and student learning. However, we also think that educators and policymakers are inclined to focus on the integration between the two for good reasons in practice. The purpose of this commentary is not to refute Ken’s points, but to explore how to move from distinguishing between entrepreneurship and innovation to creating value from both educators and policymakers.