Universities are increasingly expected to contribute to entrepreneurial ecosystems, yet existing models of the entrepreneurial university provide limited explanation of how entrepreneurial initiatives develop and evolve, particularly in resource-constrained developing-country contexts. This study examines university entrepreneurship as a dynamic and evolutionary process by integrating the dynamic capabilities perspective with evolutionary mechanisms of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Drawing on a multiple-case study of four universities in Jordan and 32 interviews, the study explores how universities develop and adapt entrepreneurial initiatives through interaction with their surrounding ecosystems. The findings show that university entrepreneurship evolves through interconnected processes of sensing, seizing, and transforming. Universities identify ecosystem needs and assess internal capabilities, select opportunities that fit their resources and strategic priorities, and reconfigure internal and external resources to implement entrepreneurial initiatives. These initiatives subsequently generate feedback, selection, and adaptation, leading universities to refine their activities and renew the sensing process. The study further shows that universities follow different entrepreneurial trajectories rather than converging toward a single entrepreneurial-university model. By integrating dynamic capabilities with an evolutionary ecosystem perspective, the study conceptualizes university entrepreneurship as an iterative and co-evolutionary process shaped by institutional capabilities and ecosystem interactions. The findings offer theoretical and practical implications for understanding university entrepreneurship in developing-country contexts.

Keywords: university entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial ecosystems; dynamic capabilities; evolutionary mechanisms; entrepreneurial university; Jordan.