Neither Academic Capitalists nor Ivory Tower Traditionalists: Faculty Entrepreneurs' Sense-Making and Dual Responsibilities in University Spin-Offs

• In Event: Leadership and Organizational Culture

Abstract

The present paper examined faculty entrepreneurs’ perceptions, motivation, and engagement in USOs to explain the microfoundation of academic entrepreneurship. Drawn upon institutional theory, I explained the sensemaking process of faculty entrepreneurs at three public universities. Findings showed that faculty participants blend a market logic with academic values to justify their entrepreneurial engagement. When their entrepreneurial engagement is dissonant with the dominant logics of their institutions, they will either constrain themselves from entrepreneurial involvement or deploy an institutional logic that provides symbolic meanings to legitimize their entrepreneurial involvement. By explaining how faculty entrepreneurs reconcile tensions, this paper sought to shed light on how institutional actors reproduce institutional logics to obtain legitimacy in the institution.

Author

• Suki Wang, University of California - Riverside