In the last years, universities have assumed a prominent role in the science and technology-based economic development. The concept of entrepreneurial university, a key concept in the triple helix model developed by Etzkowitz, identifies the evolution of the university role with the addition to the traditional missions of university (education and research) of a third mission that is to contribute to the economic development through the transfer of research results from the laboratory to the economic system. The objective of the research is to analyze how universities are implementing this new mission and investigate factors affecting their entrepreneurial orientation. More specifically, our paper aims to investigate the existence of a relationship among the entrepreneurial orientation of university and some factors representing the internal and external context in which the university is involved.