Attention to Exploration: The Effect of Academic Entrepreneurship on the Production of Scientific Knowledge

Abstract

We study how becoming an entrepreneur affects academic scientists’ research. We propose that entrepreneurship will shift scientists’ attention away from intradisciplinary research questions and toward new bodies of knowledge relevant for downstream technology development. This will propel scientists to engage in exploration, meaning they work on topics new to them. In turn, this shift toward exploration will enhance the impact of the entrepreneurial scientist’s subsequent research, as concepts and models from other bodies of knowledge are combined in novel ways. Entrepreneurship leads to more impactful research, mediated by exploration. Using panel data on the full population of scientists at a large research university, we find support for this argument. Our study is novel in that it identifies a shift of attention as the mechanism underpinning the beneficial spillover effects from founding a venture on the production of public science. A key implication of our study is that commercial work by academics can drive fundamental advances in science.

Venture creation patterns in academic entrepreneurship: the role of founder motivations

“…For instance, 89 out of 165 scientists collected information about the market and their competitors but only 21 have already accepted first orders. This descriptive finding is consistent with the latest studies on academic entrepreneurship based on UK and Italian data (Bolzan et al, 2020;Fini et al, 2021) and the research of Fritsch and Krabel (2012) as well as Kollmann et al (2017). The latter point out a high discrepancy between the identification of an entrepreneurial opportunity and initial entrepreneurial actions.…”

“…According to Fritsch and Krabel (2012), 28% of all university scientists in Germany plan to start their own business but only 3.2% actually bring their plans to fruition. These numbers are consistent with the latest studies on academic entrepreneurship based on British and Italian data indicating that only 3% of all scientists engage in academic entrepreneurship (Bolzan et al, 2020;Fini et al, 2021). More research is necessary to understand the drivers and patterns of venture creation activities in academic entrepreneurship (Bikard & Marx, 2020;Fayolle et al, 2014;Fini et al, 2021;Greven et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021;Sciarelli et al, 2021).…”

“…These numbers are consistent with the latest studies on academic entrepreneurship based on British and Italian data indicating that only 3% of all scientists engage in academic entrepreneurship (Bolzan et al, 2020;Fini et al, 2021). More research is necessary to understand the drivers and patterns of venture creation activities in academic entrepreneurship (Bikard & Marx, 2020;Fayolle et al, 2014;Fini et al, 2021;Greven et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021;Sciarelli et al, 2021). We still do not know much about what motivates academic entrepreneurs and how different types of motivations predict entrepreneurial behaviors at different stages of the venture creation process (Hossinger et al, 2020).…”

“…We find a negative effect of the desire to use experience or knowledge on the amount of completed venture creation activities. This effect is noteworthy and can be explained through spillover effects of the venture creation for subsequent research projects (Fini et al, 2021). Scientists engaging in entrepreneurial activities usually tend to work on new topics.…”

Characteristics and Evolution of China’s Industry–University–Research Collaboration to Promote the Sustainable Development: Based on Policy Text Analysis

“…During the era of rapid development facilitated by the knowledge economy, scientific and technological innovation has become essential to improving national competitiveness [1,2]. Nowadays, in facing societal problems that are complex and changeable, resource-sharing and coordination have become inevitable choices for different innovation subjects [3,4].…”