This article explores the context, contents and impact of Burton Clark's two books devoted to the concept of 'the entrepreneurial university'. It describes the widespread influence of the entrepreneurial idea particularly in Europe and discusses its relevance a decade or so after its first formulation. It argues that Creating Entrepreneurial Universities had a major impact on the way European universities thought about the appropriate balance between institutional autonomy and state control and it released energies in many countries and a concern for self-management which had hitherto lain dormant. It also raised the important question of the relationship between the organisational framework necessary to assist institutional self-reliance and the conduct of academic work.