Entrepreneurial academic entrepreneurs: understanding micro social factors and legitimacy

Abstract

As universities transition toward being increasingly entrepreneurial there is, according to their emerging strategies, a call for a new breed of Entrepreneurial Academic. Academic Entrepreneurs, who spinning-out or starting-up new ventures, have been studied since the inception of academic capitalism in the late 1980s. Recently, policy and now research recognises less formal modes of business engagement attracts academics with an Entrepreneurial modus-operandi. However we know little about the distinctions between the two types of academics, the challenges they face, particularly how microsocial factors impact upon their motivations and legitimacy. This exploratory research reports on 3 matched-pair interviews comparing traditional and second career academics in a leading UK Business School. We find that career pathway affects the motivation to become an entrepreneurial academic and that the prevalence of organisational reward and recognition processes, support, norms and role models all impacted upon the perceived legitimacy of Entrepreneurial Academics.