Proceedings of Annual Shanghai Business, Economics and Finance Conference
3 - 4 November 2014, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Shanghai, China
ISBN: 978-1-922069-63-4
Academic Entrepreneurs: Cognitive Factors Driving Researchers
to Start Their Own Venture
Maria Claudia Angel Ferreroa and Véronique Bessièreb
Research in academic entrepreneurship has gained momentum in the last two
decades, mainly because of its important contribution to technological
innovations and national economies. However, little attention has been paid to
the personality traits and cognitive factors influencing the decision by
researchers to engage in entrepreneurial activity. The purpose of this article is to
draw on the tenets of entrepreneurial cognition and behavioural decision-making
theories to explain why some innovations remain in the lab while others are
implemented in the outside world. Moreover, we study why some researchers
‘think entrepreneurially’ while others do not. Our research analyses the
difference in cognitive style and risk behaviour between entrepreneurs who
started out in academic laboratories and later moved from research to spin-off
ventures in order to implement their innovation, and those who did not take this
step but instead chose to remain in the laboratory environment. Our results
provide empirical evidence that higher self-efficacy and risk-taking behaviour are
positively related to the transition made by researchers from the academic
laboratory to the world of spin-offs, although the ability to detect business
opportunities was not observed to have any significant effect. Taken together,
these results emphasise the need for further research on cognitive and
behavioural factors influencing the decision by researchers to start a venture.
Field of Research: Entrepreneurship
JEL Codes: L26, M13, O31
__________________________________________________________________________
a
Department of Business Administration, MRM-Labex Entreprendre, University of Montpellier, Avenue Raymond
Dugrand 34960 Montpellier Cedex 2, France; maria.angel87@gmail.com
b
IAE School of Management, MRM-Labex Entreprendre ;University of Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon
34095 Montpellier CEDEX 5, France; veronique.bessiere@univ-montp2.fr