Content area
Full Text
Introduction
The reason for interest in academic entrepreneurship usually centres on the reported economic benefits arising from the commercialisation of science and technological knowledge ([48] Storey and Tether, 1998). The ideas of a knowledge pump, or engine, have a resonance among policy makers attempting to characterise the dynamic role of universities in regional and national economies. The exemplars of Stanford University and Silicon Valley in the USA ([41] Saxenian, 1996) and Cambridge University in the UK ([42] Segal, 1986) are often held as the models to emulate. However, within the UK there is a perception that the entrepreneurial potential within universities needs to be more actively stimulated ([38] OST, 2001).
UK policy makers have demonstrated their interest with targeted interventions (e.g. the University Challenge Fund and the Science Enterprise Challenge) aimed at encouraging and promoting academic entrepreneurship. The importance of the phenomenon, and an impetus for attention from entrepreneurship researchers, is the predicted UK-wide outcomes of the Science Enterprise Challenge over the five-year duration of the initiative (2000-2005): an estimated 40,000 students to receive some form of entrepreneurship education and the creation of 700 spin-out companies. Such targets are set within an overall aim of increasing "awareness of the importance of business enterprise at all levels in universities ... and ... [to] legitimise commercial activity as a valid aspect of academic life" ([38] OST, 2001, p. 1).
However, there is a paucity of research in the area of academic entrepreneurship ([50] Tidd et al. , 2005). This can be attributed to a number of factors including the small number of academics who are explicitly known to their university as being involved in entrepreneurial activity and the traditional nature of university structures. In addition there is a continuing ambiguity concerning the issue of the ownership of academic knowledge (Individually or organisationally-owned knowledge?). The research that has been undertaken has been sparse ([42] Segal, 1986; [29] Louis et al. , 1989; [40] Samson and Gurdon, 1993; [5] Chrisman et al. , 1995; [49] Tidd and Barnes, 1999; [1] Birley, 2002; [17] Etzkowitz, 2003a; [30] Louw et al. , 2003) with the most relevant body of research centred on new technology based firms (NTBFs) ([39] Roberts, 1991 and [37] Oakey, 1995) and typologies of technology based entrepreneurs...