Towards a theory of goals in academic entrepreneurship. A socio-emotional wealth perspective

Academic entrepreneurship as a field of research is approaching its maturity stage, with an increasing number of contributions appearing in major entrepreneurship, management and technology policy journals. The study of... [ view full abstract ]

Academic entrepreneurship as a field of research is approaching its maturity stage, with an increasing number of contributions appearing in major entrepreneurship, management and technology policy journals. The study of academic entrepreneurship requires however an effort towards a more sound theorizing (Wright, 2014) that goes beyond merely descriptive purposes or fragmented attempts of theory testing. In this paper, our aim is to develop a novel and encompassing “theory of goals” in academic entrepreneurship, that helps reconciling major contradictory evidence in the field, especially regarding the survival, performance and growth of academic spin-offs. We propose a conceptual framework that explores the micro-foundations and consequences of academic entrepreneurs’ goals and motivations, using horizontal theory borrowing from the field of family business as a means of theoretical development (Whetten et al. 2009). In particular, the core of our theoretical effort is the extension to the behavior of academic spin-offs of the socioemotional wealth perspective (Berrone et al., 2012), which effectively accounts for the coexistence of economic goals with non-economic ones in the entrepreneurial activity. In light of this perspective, we will interpret the main process and outcomes of academic entrepreneurship, suggesting explanations for some puzzling evidence and proposing themes for future research.