TY - JOUR
T1 - Becoming an academic entrepreneur
T2 - how scientists develop an entrepreneurial identity
AU - Hayter, Christopher S.
AU - Fischer, Bruno
AU - Rasmussen, Einar
N1 - Funding Information:
Chris Hayter warmly thanks the New England NSF I-Corps Node at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, especially executive director Roman Lubynsky, for financial and intellectual support of this work (NSF Award #1832931, Subaward S4775 PO—276392). Bruno Fischer’s contribution is based on a study funded by the Basic Research Program of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and by the Russian Academic Excellence Project ‘5‐100’. The authors are also grateful to Charles Murnieks, Blake Ashforth, Mirjam Knockaert, Ulrich Jensen, and Spiro Maroulis for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - While academic entrepreneurship depends on the entrepreneurial behavior of university scientists, management studies show that identity development precedes behavioral enactment. This paper extends our understanding of why and how individuals who define themselves as a scientist develop or fail to develop a new commercialization-focused entrepreneurial identity. We develop an explanatory process model by drawing from the concept of liminality, a transitional state during which individuals construct or reconstruct an identity, as well as the entrepreneurship literature. The model not only provides a stylized illustration of identity development and its associated behavioral outcomes, but it also includes several factors such as agency and passion, liminal competence, social support, organizational and institutional support, and temporal factors that moderate the process. We contribute to the literature on entrepreneurial identity by providing a dynamic conceptualization of identity construction and incorporation, among other outcomes, as well as to the academic entrepreneurship literature by elucidating the origin and development of entrepreneurial identities among scientists. A conceptual focus on identity-related micro-processes may help explain why some scientists are more successful at commercializing technologies derived from their research than others. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.
AB - While academic entrepreneurship depends on the entrepreneurial behavior of university scientists, management studies show that identity development precedes behavioral enactment. This paper extends our understanding of why and how individuals who define themselves as a scientist develop or fail to develop a new commercialization-focused entrepreneurial identity. We develop an explanatory process model by drawing from the concept of liminality, a transitional state during which individuals construct or reconstruct an identity, as well as the entrepreneurship literature. The model not only provides a stylized illustration of identity development and its associated behavioral outcomes, but it also includes several factors such as agency and passion, liminal competence, social support, organizational and institutional support, and temporal factors that moderate the process. We contribute to the literature on entrepreneurial identity by providing a dynamic conceptualization of identity construction and incorporation, among other outcomes, as well as to the academic entrepreneurship literature by elucidating the origin and development of entrepreneurial identities among scientists. A conceptual focus on identity-related micro-processes may help explain why some scientists are more successful at commercializing technologies derived from their research than others. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.
KW - Academic entrepreneurship
KW - Entrepreneurial identity
KW - Entrepreneurship ecosystems
KW - Identity development
KW - Liminality
KW - Technology commercialization
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U2 - 10.1007/s11187-021-00585-3
DO - 10.1007/s11187-021-00585-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85120729237
SN - 0921-898X
VL - 59
SP - 1469
EP - 1487
JO - Small Business Economics
JF - Small Business Economics
IS - 4
ER -