Business Creation and Academic Entrepreneurship : Cognition, Role and Career Development of University Researchers

我们从行为特征、创业策略和特定于学术衍生产品的管理问题的角度来考察大学研究人员的创业活动。我们对生物技术产业中的学术衍生企业进行了五个案例研究，重点研究了首席科学家/教师、首席执行官/外部企业家以及他们之间的关系。我们还对参与学术衍生产品的经理和大学研究人员进行了调查。我们的发现和解释如下：-学术企业家通常喜欢创新，但他们倾向于略微厌恶管理决策的风险。当商业环境发生变化时，管理者和研究员的角色之间的区别往往会变得模糊。例如，我们有时可以观察到研究人员对商业活动的过度承诺。对公司的广泛而坚定的承诺并不总是带来整体的商业成功。-学术衍生利用其大学的声誉作为一种合法化战略，以建立与市场、投资者和消费者的信任。大学使用学术衍生产品作为其积极的产学研联系和研究成果有用性的证据。另一方面，利用对方使他们的活动合法化有时会锁定他们的战略选择。我们提出了“合法化范围”的概念来澄清双边关系。这项研究有助于形成关于学术创业的悖论性质的新文献。它还对企业的合法性管理和创新管理提供了启示。

We examine the entrepreneurial activity of university researchers from the viewpoint of behavioral characteristics, venture strategy, and management issues specific to the academic spin-offs. We conduct five case studies of academic spin-off firms in bio-technology industry, focusing on the chief scientist/faculty, CEO/external entrepreneur and their relationships. We also survey managers and university researchers involved in the academic spin-offs.Our findings and explanations are as follows :-Academic entrepreneurs generally like innovation, but they tend to be slightly risk averse as to managerial decisions. When business environments are changing, the distinction between the role of a manager and that of a researcher are often blurred. For example, we can sometimes observe an over commitment to business activities by researchers. The wide and strong commitment to the company would not always lead to overall business success.-Academic spin-offs use their universities' reputation as a legitimatization strategy for building trust with the market, investors, and consumers. Universities use academic spin-offs as evidence of their active university-industry linkage and usefulness of their research output. On the other hand, using each other to legitimize their activities sometimes locks their strategic options. We propose the notion of "the range of legitimization" to clarify the bilateral relationship.This study contributes to the nascent literature dealing with the paradoxical nature of academic entrepreneurship. It also sheds light on the management of legitimacy of ventures and on innovation management.