Entrepreneurial Orientations and (Internal/External) Motivations to do Science

• In Event: 1260 - The Many Pathways to STEM

Abstract

We contend that the work academic scientists do is entrepreneurial because they are in the business of discovering, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities to create new knowledge. Four entrepreneurial traits seem particularly appropriate when considering academic entrepreneurship: tolerance of ambiguity, optimism, innovativeness, and competitive aggressiveness. In an effort to understand what motivates STEM postdoctoral trainees’ achievements in science, we discover that all four entrepreneurial traits are factors, with tolerance for ambiguity, optimism, and innovativeness predicting internal motivations to do science and competitive aggressiveness predicting external ones.

Authors

• Richard N. Pitt, Vanderbilt University

• Oluchi Nwosu-Randolph, Vanderbilt University