Academic Entrepreneurship: The Roles of Identity, Motivation, Championing, Education, Work-Life Balance, and Organizational Justice

The burgeoning literature on academic entrepreneurship primarily incorporates macro- level ideas and tools from fields such as economics, sociology, strategy, and public policy. Most of this research focuses on institutional, economic, and demographic variables from a macro perspective, rather than examining micro processes that may be associated with academic entrepreneurship. The literature also tends to stress formal, as opposed to informal, mechanisms of academic entrepreneurship. We assert that a consideration of various micro-level processes is also useful for improving our understanding of academic entrepreneurship. We draw heavily on the organizational behavior literature to consider how micro processes, specifically processes associated with identity, motivation, leadership/championing, education, work-life balance, and organizational justice, may help explain scientists’ engagement in academic entrepreneurship. We present some preliminary qualitative findings that support this perspective.