University double bind: How academic entrepreneurship works in Russia

Abstract

The existing literature on the entrepreneurial transition of universities tends to focus on three main areas: management challenges, working conditions, and the professional identity of researchers. However, it is unclear how entrepreneurial practices actually exist in the new situation. This paper examines the influence of current policies and academic traditions on the emergence of academic entrepreneurship and the practices that emerge. The specific organizational context in Russia (post-Soviet planning traditions, bureaucratization, and extensive state funding of entrepreneurial activities) has created a contradictory situation for researchers, who have been forced to create local practices to address specific problems at particular moments. A theoretical framework that distinguishes between strategic and tactical entrepreneurship, based on de Certeau’s and Scott’s sociology of practice, is used to analyze these local practices in Russian universities. As a result, I have compiled a list of tactics, including academic entrepreneurship, buffering, bootlegging, window dressing, research portfolio management, commercial duty, duplicating organizations, and gray zone entrepreneurship. The study presents a novel methodology for examining the policy-application gap and offers insights into the discrepancy between statistical accounting and actual academic entrepreneurship.