Abstract
Purpose
Despite growing scholarly interest in academic entrepreneurship (AE) few studies have examined its non-commercial aspects and how it contributes to meeting grand societal challenges. One explanation for this may be the continuing focus of AE on intellectual property commercialization. This paper aims to address this knowledge gap by uncovering how universities can contribute to promoting non-commercial forms of AE.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the human capital theoretical lens to make its argument and applies it to data obtained from exploratory qualitative research (55 semi-structured interviews and nine focus groups) in the developing countries of Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.
Findings
Universities can promote different forms of non-commercial AE even in the absence of sophisticated resources for innovation, through the stimulation of the specific human capital of the university community resulting from activities where they help others.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a general framework for advancing theory development in AE and its non-commercial forms, based on data obtained in uncharted territories for AE.
Despite growing scholarly interest in academic entrepreneurship (AE) few studies have examined its non-commercial aspects and how it contributes to meeting grand societal challenges. One explanation for this may be the continuing focus of AE on intellectual property commercialization. This paper aims to address this knowledge gap by uncovering how universities can contribute to promoting non-commercial forms of AE.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the human capital theoretical lens to make its argument and applies it to data obtained from exploratory qualitative research (55 semi-structured interviews and nine focus groups) in the developing countries of Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.
Findings
Universities can promote different forms of non-commercial AE even in the absence of sophisticated resources for innovation, through the stimulation of the specific human capital of the university community resulting from activities where they help others.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a general framework for advancing theory development in AE and its non-commercial forms, based on data obtained in uncharted territories for AE.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1679-1701 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| Early online date | 25 Jul 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 28 Oct 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors thank the respondents that contributed with their inputs in this research. The authors also express gratitude to the editors and peer-reviewers for their feedback during the review process. Authors’ contribution: Jason Jahir Roncancio Marin contributed in original draft, formal analysis, conceptualization, methodology, writing – review & editing, software, investigation, data curation and validation. Nikolay Dentchev contributed in supervision, review & editing and validation. Maribel Guerrero gave a hand in conceptualization, review & editing and validation and Abel Díaz González helped in data curation, data collection, validation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Copyright:
Copyright 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.