Collaboration with entrepreneurship education programmes : building spinout capacity at universities

As the University Spin Out (USO) has become a highly desirable outcome for commercialization efforts, the development of entrepreneurial capacity within the university system becomes increasingly more important. We hypothesize that entrepreneurship education (EE) programs ceterus paribus may play a role in developing this capacity. This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of academics who are directly involved in the field of EE programs with four research goals in mind: 1) to determine whether or not there are perceived advantages to collaboration between EE programs and technology transfer departments, 2) identify specific factors that influence these perceptions, (3) query academics as to perceived barriers to collaboration, and (4) to identify whether collaborations already exist and categorize them. Our findings suggest that significant advantages from collaboration between these two functions are perceived and that indirect linkages are believed to be more important than direct linkages.<br /

University entrepreneurship : context, process and performance

This project embraced empirical work that studied existing research commercialization systems (RCS) at both first tier and second tier universities, found them flawed and produced an enhanced framework that is definitely applicable to second tier universities (the vast majority) and possibly applicable to first tier universities as well

Measuring the Integration of Social and Environmental Missions in Hybrid Organizations

The authors gratefully acknowledge the excellent suggestions of the Section Editor, Julia Roloff and the three anonymous reviewers. We also thank the many Certified B Corporations for their participation in this study. The first author acknowledges research support from the Initiative for Regulation and Applied Economic Analysis (IRAEA) at Montana State University.Peer reviewedPostprin

The role of entrepreneurship education in the commercialization of intellectual property at Canadian universities

In this research paper, we explore the relationship between the commercialization of intellectual property created within Canadian universities and academic entrepreneurship education programs. The steady growth and importance of both these activities over the last twenty years highlights the value of empirically examining the linkages that may exist between them. This paper will endeavor to add to the limited research in these areas and provide both empirical evidence and theoretical support to improve definition and distinction of the roles of these two seemingly interrelated activities. The data tested suggest that the main driver of commercialization intensity is derived from the creation of an environment rich in IP. However, further study is required to enhance understanding. In particular, we need to know more about the impact that the development of entrepreneurial capacity within an institution may have upon the spin-out process.<br /

Connecting entrepreneurship with innovation value in university knowledge transfer

This paper conceptually links entrepreneurship and innovation through a structured and comprehensive examination of the levels of activities that may be (or should be) found within the modern university. By doing so, we believe a fertile ground for testing insightful new hypothesis will be opened for exploration. The authors explore several literatures and introduce three novel theoretical models to help examine innovation and entrepreneurship within the domain of university knowledge transfer. Predicated upon our generalized conceptual assertion that innovation is a function of new knowledge and entrepreneurial capacity, we pose four research questions: 1) what is innovation and entrepreneurship in the university context, 2) how might it be studied, fostered and evaluated, 3) how do the domains of individually driven entrepreneurship and organizational entrepreneurship interact and converge within the university innovation value creation process and 4) how does entrepreneurship ultimately impact upon innovation with respect to creating value from all areas of research and activities provided by the modern university? It is expected that the models offered will allow for both theoretical and empirical testing of these questions.<br /

The role of entrepreneurship education in commercializing intellectual property in Canadian universities

Why do some universities have greater success at commercializing intellectual property than others? This question gains considerable importance when cast against the backdrop of a global economy with an insatiable thirst for knowledge based innovation and the increasing demands for value for money invested by governments and others in research at universities. The commercialization of intellectual property is quickly becoming an important 'third' mandate for universities, in addition to teaching and the creation of knowledge. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of commercialization efforts by universities in Canada. In particular, we examine empirical evidence in exploring the argument that entrepreneurship education and related programs play a vital role in the ability of universities to commercialize intellectual property. By establishing empirical correlations between entrepreneurship education programs and accepted commercialization outcomes, it is hoped that a host of new research questions can be generated that will provide positive insight to policies and best practices. We begin with the 2 most common circumstances. The first occurs when a rich intellectual property regime drives the commercialization process. Commercialization efforts usually emerge in this rich environment in the form of technology transfer units. Over time these efforts often become more and more entrepreneurial with increasing attention devoted to venture creation, including support activities such as entrepreneurship education, incubators and the like. The less common occurrence is when an entrepreneurship program provides the impetus for commercialization of intellectual property. These programs usually develop in business schools and are generally focused both outwardly to the business community and inwardly on business students. Over time an awareness often emerges that there are other units within the university that could benefit from a closer relationship with these entrepreneurship centres/program. As a result, some entrepreneurship programs have acquired a third, also internal focus - the identification and development of opportunities latent in the intellectual property created by both faculty and students. A third possibility emerges; a 'borne global' approach in which technology transfer units and entrepreneurship education programs are merged in one, forming a latticework of supportive programs and networks which can initiate a virtuous circle. Intellectual property means latent opportunity. Entrepreneurship programs and technology transfer efforts foster an increased ability to identify such latent opportunities and to commercialize them, rewarding the creation of intellectual property and to encouraging the creation of more, and so on

Commercialisation of new knowledge within universities : exploring performance disparities

This paper finds that vast disparities exist in new technology commercialisation outputs between a small percentage of high performing universities, and the remaining bulk of under-performers. Theoretical explanations for these findings are as follows. First, high performing universities attract resources, both human and financial, with a much stronger pull than lower performing universities. Second, this study confronts a gap in the literature with regard to the prominence of entrepreneurship within the innovation and technology development process. Third, this study brings new light to bear on the reliability and validity of evaluative tools (variables) currently accepted as indicators of innovation in the university technology transfer context