University Sponsored Business Incubators: How Academic Capitalism is Changing Student Entrepreneur Career Formation

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 22. Teachers, Postsecondary Education, and Career Choices

Abstract

After the Great Recession, U.S. universities began a veritable arms race to launch new business incubators. While incubators have existed outside the academy since at least the 1980s, it is not until the post-recession era that universities in the U.S. have taken such an active role in creating them—so much so that universities now control one in three incubators nationwide. This project traces the emergence and spread of university incubators in California, and then delves more deeply into three specific case studies representing an elite private university, a flagship public university, and a second tier public university. How are these new incubators changing the ways students’ approach and practice entrepreneurism? How do students experience the impact of incubator participation on their academic achievement and psychological wellbeing? How do students experience campus incubators differently across institutional tiers, as well as across various student groupings by race, class, and gender?

Author

• Daniel Davis, University of California, San Diego