Late-stage academic entrepreneurship: Explaining why academic scientists collaborate with industry to commercialize their patents

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between identity centrality and entrepreneurial intention. Based on a survey of 275 academic scientists from 14 Chinese universities, the results show that entrepreneurial identity centrality positively influences the intention to engage in research commercialisation activities, such as spin-off creation, patenting and licensing, contracting research and consulting. We also found that the conflict between entrepreneurial and scientific identity centrality is less problematic than expected in the literature. In fact, the interaction between both identity centralities strengthens academics scientists’ intention to involve in academic entrepreneurship. Concerning the influence of institutional factor on academic entrepreneurship, the finding confirms that university entrepreneurial mission moderates the relationship between both identity centralities and the intention to establish spin-offs. Finally, this paper provides insights for academic entrepreneurship in China and practical recommendation for policy makers.

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Of Horses and Jockeys: Perceptions by Academic Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship Research Journal ◽

10.1515/erj-2019-0011 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Carrie A. Blair ◽

Kelly G. Shaver

Keyword(s):

Academic Entrepreneurship ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Psychological Characteristics ◽

Substantial Body ◽

Academic Scientists ◽

Academic Entrepreneurs ◽

Recent Interest ◽

Academic Medical ◽

Context Specific

AbstractAlthough there has been increasing recent interest in universities as ecosystems for the encouragement of academic entrepreneurship, almost none of that work has dealt with the specific personal motives that might lead academic scientists to start companies. Metaphorically, there has been a substantial body of work describing how to create a better racetrack, some study of what sort of horses best perform in the track, but essentially no examination of the jockeys. We address this gap in the literature in two ways – first by “importing” a variety of psychological characteristics that have been shown to be predictive in the larger entrepreneurship literature, and second by developing a series of context-specific motives. Our study of 50 biomedical scientists in an academic medical center showed, unsurprisingly, that patents matter. More importantly, although the results for the imported psychological characteristics were disappointing, the findings for context-specific motives suggest that founders are distinguished from non-founders primarily by their interest in doing something positive for humanity.

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Promoting entrepreneurial intentions for academic scientists: combining the social cognition theory and theory of planned behaviour in broadly-defined academic entrepreneurship

European Journal of Innovation Management ◽

10.1108/ejim-07-2020-0257 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Miao Wang ◽

Jianfeng Cai ◽

Hina Munir

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Theory Of Planned Behaviour ◽

Academic Entrepreneurship ◽

Subjective Norms ◽

Entrepreneurial Intentions ◽

Planned Behaviour ◽

Content Type ◽

Chinese Context ◽

Academic Scientists ◽

The Social

PurposeDrawing on the social cognition theory, the purpose of this research is to explore how selected individual and organizational determinants, namely individual academic output (AO) and previous commercialization experience, organizational scientific reputation and entrepreneurial support policies (ESPs) influence their broadly-defined academic entrepreneurial intentions, involving spin-off intention (SOI), patenting and licensing intention (PLI), contract research and consulting intention (CCI) through theory of planned behaviour (TPB) modelling.Design/methodology/approachThe current research constructs the framework by combining reciprocal determinism in the social cognition theory with TPB. To testify the hypotheses, partial least squares structural equational modelling (PLS–SEM) technique with 272 observations from Chinese universities was utilized.FindingsThe findings show that academic-related determinants, namely individual AO and organizational reputation (OR), are more likely to influence academic scientists' SOI through TPB modelling, while entrepreneurial-related determinants in terms of individual previous commercialization experience (PCE) and ESPs in higher education organizations are more influential for promoting behavioural intention to all kinds of academic entrepreneurship activities through TPB modelling. The more formal academic entrepreneurship involvement (engaging in creating spin-offs) is better explained through TPB modelling, especially the continuous mediating effects of subjective norms and entrepreneurial attitude and perceived behavioural control are more effective on spin-off activities. In addition, subjective norms are more influential in mediating relationships between individual or organizational antecedents and academic entrepreneurial intentions in the Chinese context.Originality/valueCombining the social cognition theory and TPB, this study first investigated how individual intentions to engage in broadly-defined academic entrepreneurial activities are promoted through TPB modelling. The results, relating to the divergence of different determinants shaping different academic entrepreneurial intentions through various paths in TPB modelling, will provide insight into university managers and policymakers to improve academic entrepreneurship engagement in the Chinese context.

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