Exploring the determinants of starting a firm by scientists

Abstract

For decades, it has been recognized, both academically and politically, that commercialisation of scientific knowledge has a positive impact on regional economy and development. In the wake of this development, concepts as science-based entrepreneurship (SBE) have flourished and received increased focus both from scholars and policymakers. But, since starting a new firm entails several changes, which alters both the scientist’s profession and institutional sphere, why do scientists even want to engage in this activity? This is exactly what this study is set out to answer. Specially dedicated to find out what motivates scientists over different stages of SBE and what characterise those who pursue a career as an entrepreneur. To investigate these questions, a quantitative method is employed, linking characteristic from the literature of science-based entrepreneurship, the broader entrepreneurial literature, and academic engagement. Both less and more commonly studied influencers in this area of research are discussed, to outline how the entrepreneurial journey is influenced from the initial stage to those succeeding. Based on different sources of data combined in a cross-sectional analysis using ordinal and binary-logit models, robust results from a large sample of 2,810 individual scientists were obtained. The results show that some major influential factors are rather heterogeneous and characteristic for certain stages, but equivalently similarities are found. The incentives of patenting activities, disciplinary background, and academic engagement with entities from the private sector, are all found to be important activities over the course of SBE, but differing in intensity. This present a comprehensive image of science-based entrepreneurs and point towards what lays at the interface between academic and commercial logic, but also between the different stages of science-based entrepreneurship; willingness to start a firm, starting a firm and staying active in the firm.