This study is concentrated in determining how higher education institutions, particularly the case of entrepreneurial universities in a developing nation, address the social and economic expectations of the society based on a regional setting. To understand this context, a public university in the Philippines was chosen as a case study to represent the higher education institutions in the Northern Mindanao region. The term “entrepreneurial university” was used all throughout this research to emphasize the commerce-related undertakings executed by the case. 

Data collection was done through questionnaire dissemination and analysis of the Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997. Representatives from the University’s central administration, faculty and local government shared their insights on the issues related to the scope of entrepreneurial obligations, the mechanisms in promoting higher education institutions’ involvement in the region and how the case study’s institutional environment depict the elements of entrepreneurialism as obligations to regional development.  In the theoretical framework for this study, the institutional theory attempted to explain how the demands of the people and society confront higher education institutions by means of academic related obligations, community related obligations, and most importantly, the expected response to regional development obligations. Findings were able to prove that choosing the entrepreneurial path is not only an issue of institutional survival but also going towards the direction of extending better higher education services to the community and the region.

 Asiasanat:Entrepreneurial universities, regional development, obligations, developing nations, university entrepreneurialism