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

我们从行为特征、创业战略和学术衍生企业特有的管理问题的角度来研究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公司进行了五个案例研究，重点关注首席科学家/教师，首席执行官/外部企业家及其关系。我们还调查了参与学术衍生产品的管理人员和大学研究人员。我们的发现和解释如下：-学术企业家通常喜欢创新，但他们倾向于稍微规避管理决策的风险。当商业环境发生变化时，管理人员和研究人员的角色之间的区别往往是模糊的。例如，我们有时可以观察到研究人员对商业活动的过度投入。对公司的广泛和强烈的承诺并不总是导致整体业务的成功。学术衍生企业利用其大学的声誉作为合法化策略，以建立与市场，投资者和消费者的信任。大学利用学术附带利益作为其大学与产业之间的积极联系及其研究成果的有用性的证据。另一方面，利用对方使其活动合法化有时会锁定其战略选择。我们提出了“合法化范围”的概念来澄清双边关系。本研究有助于处理学术创业的悖论性质的新生文献。它还揭示了企业的合法性管理和创新管理。

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.