IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i4p1403-d320528.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Entrepreneurial Universities and Sustainable Development. The Network Bricolage Process of Academic Entrepreneurs

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Padilla-Meléndez

    (Department of Economics and Business Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences and Work, Universidad de Málaga, Campus Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain)

  • Ana Rosa Del Aguila-Obra

    (Department of Economics and Business Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences and Work, Universidad de Málaga, Campus Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain)

  • Nigel Lockett

    (Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde, Stenhouse Building, Level 4, 199 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G4 0QU, UK)

  • Elena Fuster

    (Department of Economics and Business Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences and Work, Universidad de Málaga, Campus Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain)

Abstract

This paper studies the network bricolage process of academic entrepreneurs (AEs). Based on a qualitative study, surprisingly, it shows how these entrepreneurs still encounter institutional barriers which exist in universities, in particular regarding building the social capital needed for exploiting their business ideas, and they are not, as expected, well connected to the existing formal networks but rather to the informal ones. This paper uses the bricolage approach of entrepreneurship and the literature on academic entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial universities, and social capital. In-depth interviews with key informants were conducted. Specifically, the study reveals the existence of a relevant network bricolage process of these AEs using informal versus formal networks to develop their ventures. As policy implications, there is a need for a better support from different university levels in order to increase the engagement in entrepreneurial activities of the different individuals. Universities should take a more proactive role when fostering AE activity and solve several barriers that still exist regarding knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship (e.g., bureaucracy and lack of confidence). For AEs, they need to take a more proactive role in building networks and ‘see-sawing’ between both types of network (formal and informal). By doing this, they can overcome the lack of knowledge, build trust, and improve word-of-mouth about their companies. All of this will benefit the university knowledge exchange. As a contribution, this paper explains the behavior of individual entrepreneurs when they exploit business ideas using the networks they have at hand in order to overcome institutional barriers in universities. Furthermore, it describes the process of the selection (‘see-sawing’ metaphor) of informal versus formal networks by AEs when applying their network bricolage.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Padilla-Meléndez & Ana Rosa Del Aguila-Obra & Nigel Lockett & Elena Fuster, 2020. "Entrepreneurial Universities and Sustainable Development. The Network Bricolage Process of Academic Entrepreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1403-:d:320528
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1403/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1403/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ardichvili, Alexander & Cardozo, Richard & Ray, Sourav, 2003. "A theory of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 105-123, January.
    2. Mirjana Cvijić & Jovana Tatarski & Ivana Katić & Aleksandar Vekić & Jelena Borocki, 2019. "Entrepreneurial Orientation of Public Universities in Republic of Serbia-Empirical Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-13, March.
    3. Xiao-Duo Qian & Jing Xia & Wei Liu & Sang-Bing Tsai, 2018. "An Empirical Study on Sustainable Innovation Academic Entrepreneurship Process Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-15, June.
    4. Baker, Ted, 2007. "Resources in play: Bricolage in the Toy Store(y)," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 694-711, September.
    5. Jack, Sarah L., 2010. "Approaches to studying networks: Implications and outcomes," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 120-137, January.
    6. Fini, Riccardo & Grimaldi, Rosa & Santoni, Simone & Sobrero, Maurizio, 2011. "Complements or substitutes? The role of universities and local context in supporting the creation of academic spin-offs," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1113-1127, October.
    7. Annelore Huyghe & Mirjam Knockaert & Evila Piva & Mike Wright, 2016. "Are researchers deliberately bypassing the technology transfer office? An analysis of TTO awareness," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 589-607, October.
    8. Calin S. Vac & Avram Fitiu, 2017. "Building Sustainable Development through Technology Transfer in a Romanian University," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-22, November.
    9. Haeussler, Carolin & Colyvas, Jeannette A., 2011. "Breaking the Ivory Tower: Academic Entrepreneurship in the Life Sciences in UK and Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 41-54, February.
    10. Hayter, Christopher S., 2016. "Constraining entrepreneurial development: A knowledge-based view of social networks among academic entrepreneurs," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 475-490.
    11. Walter, Achim & Auer, Michael & Ritter, Thomas, 2006. "The impact of network capabilities and entrepreneurial orientation on university spin-off performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 541-567, July.
    12. Etzkowitz, Henry, 2003. "Research groups as 'quasi-firms': the invention of the entrepreneurial university," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 109-121, January.
    13. Krabel, Stefan & Mueller, Pamela, 2009. "What drives scientists to start their own company?: An empirical investigation of Max Planck Society scientists," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 947-956, July.
    14. David Audretsch, 2014. "From the entrepreneurial university to the university for the entrepreneurial society," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 313-321, June.
    15. Janet Bercovitz & Maryann Feldman, 2008. "Academic Entrepreneurs: Organizational Change at the Individual Level," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 69-89, February.
    16. Simon Mosey & Mike Wright, 2007. "From Human Capital to Social Capital: A Longitudinal Study of Technology–Based Academic Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(6), pages 909-935, November.
    17. Grimaldi, Rosa & Kenney, Martin & Siegel, Donald S. & Wright, Mike, 2011. "30 years after Bayh-Dole: Reassessing academic entrepreneurship," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1045-1057, October.
    18. Christopher S. Hayter, 2016. "A trajectory of early-stage spinoff success: the role of knowledge intermediaries within an entrepreneurial university ecosystem," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 633-656, October.
    19. Sanjay Jain & Gerard George, 2007. "Technology transfer offices as institutional entrepreneurs: the case of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and human embryonic stem cells," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(4), pages 535-567, August.
    20. Bryan T. Stinchfield & Reed E. Nelson & Matthew S. Wood, 2013. "Learning from Levi–Strauss’ Legacy: Art, Craft, Engineering, Bricolage, and Brokerage in Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(4), pages 889-921, July.
    21. Ben R. Martin, 2012. "Are universities and university research under threat? Towards an evolutionary model of university speciation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 36(3), pages 543-565.
    22. Francisco-Isidoro Vega-Gomez & F. Javier Miranda & Antonio Chamorro Mera & Jesús Pérez Mayo, 2018. "The Spin-Off as an Instrument of Sustainable Development: Incentives for Creating an Academic USO," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-15, November.
    23. Nicolaou, Nicos & Birley, Sue, 2003. "Academic networks in a trichotomous categorisation of university spinouts," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 333-359, May.
    24. Debackere, Koenraad & Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2005. "The role of academic technology transfer organizations in improving industry science links," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 321-342, April.
    25. Geoffrey Desa, 2012. "Resource Mobilization in International Social Entrepreneurship: Bricolage as a Mechanism of Institutional Transformation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(4), pages 727-751, July.
    26. Powers, Joshua B. & McDougall, Patricia P., 2005. "University start-up formation and technology licensing with firms that go public: a resource-based view of academic entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 291-311, May.
    27. Elfring, Tom & Hulsink, Willem, 2003. "Networks in Entrepreneurship: The Case of High-Technology Firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 409-422, December.
    28. Helen Lawton Smith & Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen, 2012. "The research university, entrepreneurship and regional development: Research propositions and current evidence," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5-6), pages 383-404, June.
    29. Mike Wright, 2014. "Academic entrepreneurship, technology transfer and society: where next?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 322-334, June.
    30. Hoang, Ha & Antoncic, Bostjan, 2003. "Network-based research in entrepreneurship: A critical review," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 165-187, March.
    31. Helena Yli‐Renko & Erkko Autio & Harry J. Sapienza, 2001. "Social capital, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge exploitation in young technology‐based firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 587-613, June.
    32. Perkmann, Markus & Tartari, Valentina & McKelvey, Maureen & Autio, Erkko & Broström, Anders & D’Este, Pablo & Fini, Riccardo & Geuna, Aldo & Grimaldi, Rosa & Hughes, Alan & Krabel, Stefan & Kitson, Mi, 2013. "Academic engagement and commercialisation: A review of the literature on university–industry relations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 423-442.
    33. Albert N. Link & Donald S. Siegel & Barry Bozeman, 2007. "An empirical analysis of the propensity of academics to engage in informal university technology transfer ," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(4), pages 641-655, August.
    34. Janet Bercovitz & Maryann Feldman, 2006. "Entpreprenerial Universities and Technology Transfer: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Knowledge-Based Economic Development," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 175-188, January.
    35. Greg Fisher, 2012. "Effectuation, Causation, and Bricolage: A Behavioral Comparison of Emerging Theories in Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(5), pages 1019-1051, September.
    36. Maribel Guerrero & David Urbano & James Cunningham & Damien Organ, 2014. "Entrepreneurial universities in two European regions: a case study comparison," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 415-434, June.
    37. Baker, Ted & Miner, Anne S. & Eesley, Dale T., 2003. "Improvising firms: bricolage, account giving and improvisational competencies in the founding process," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 255-276, February.
    38. Eric Vaz & Teresa de Noronha Vaz & Purificacion Vicente Galindo & Peter Nijkamp, 2014. "Modelling innovation support systems for regional development -- analysis of cluster structures in innovation in Portugal," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1-2), pages 23-46, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francisco I. Vega-Gomez & Francisco J. Miranda-Gonzalez, 2021. "Choosing between Formal and Informal Technology Transfer Channels: Determining Factors among Spanish Academicians," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, February.
    2. Ajchareeya Phatanasakoo & Watcharin Sutthisai & Sitthiporn Soonthorn, 2022. "Rajabhat University Development Model for Becoming an Entrepreneurial University," Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Richtmann Publishing Ltd, vol. 11, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher S. Hayter & Andrew J. Nelson & Stephanie Zayed & Alan C. O’Connor, 2018. "Conceptualizing academic entrepreneurship ecosystems: a review, analysis and extension of the literature," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 1039-1082, August.
    2. Christian Sandström & Karl Wennberg & Martin W. Wallin & Yulia Zherlygina, 2018. "Public policy for academic entrepreneurship initiatives: a review and critical discussion," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 1232-1256, October.
    3. Gümüsay, Ali Aslan & Bohné, Thomas Marc, 2018. "Individual and organizational inhibitors to the development of entrepreneurial competencies in universities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 363-378.
    4. Berna Beyhan & Derya Findik, 2018. "Student and graduate entrepreneurship: ambidextrous universities create more nascent entrepreneurs," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 1346-1374, October.
    5. Igors Skute, 2019. "Opening the black box of academic entrepreneurship: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(1), pages 237-265, July.
    6. Annelore Huyghe & Mirjam Knockaert & Evila Piva & Mike Wright, 2016. "Are researchers deliberately bypassing the technology transfer office? An analysis of TTO awareness," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 589-607, October.
    7. Freel, Mark & Persaud, Ajax & Chamberlin, Tyler, 2019. "Faculty ideals and universities' third mission," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 10-21.
    8. Fuster, Elena & Padilla-Meléndez, Antonio & Lockett, Nigel & del-Águila-Obra, Ana Rosa, 2019. "The emerging role of university spin-off companies in developing regional entrepreneurial university ecosystems: The case of Andalusia," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 219-231.
    9. Good, Matthew & Knockaert, Mirjam & Soppe, Birthe & Wright, Mike, 2019. "The technology transfer ecosystem in academia. An organizational design perspective," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 82, pages 35-50.
    10. Christopher S. Hayter & Bruno Fischer & Einar Rasmussen, 2022. "Becoming an academic entrepreneur: how scientists develop an entrepreneurial identity," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1469-1487, December.
    11. Fischer, Bruno Brandão & Moraes, Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de & Schaeffer, Paola Rücker, 2019. "Universities' institutional settings and academic entrepreneurship: Notes from a developing country," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 243-252.
    12. Meng, Donghui & Li, Xianjun & Rong, Ke, 2019. "Industry-to-university knowledge transfer in ecosystem-based academic entrepreneurship: Case study of automotive dynamics & control group in Tsinghua University," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 249-262.
    13. Adegbile, Abiodun Samuel & Sarpong, David & Kolade, Oluwaseun, 2021. "Environments for Joint University-Industry Laboratories (JUIL): Micro-level dimensions and research implications," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    14. O’Kane, Conor & Mangematin, Vincent & Geoghegan, Will & Fitzgerald, Ciara, 2015. "University technology transfer offices: The search for identity to build legitimacy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 421-437.
    15. Prokop, Daniel, 2021. "University entrepreneurial ecosystems and spinoff companies: Configurations, developments and outcomes," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    16. Maximilian Goethner & Michael Wyrwich, 2020. "Cross-faculty proximity and academic entrepreneurship: the role of business schools," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 1016-1062, August.
    17. Victoria Galan-Muros & Todd Davey, 2019. "The UBC ecosystem: putting together a comprehensive framework for university-business cooperation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 1311-1346, August.
    18. Giuliano Sansone & Daniele Battaglia & Paolo Landoni & Emilio Paolucci, 2021. "Academic spinoffs: the role of entrepreneurship education," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 369-399, March.
    19. Bijedić, Teita & Schröder, Christian & Werner, Arndt & Chen, Xiangyu, 2023. "How do working conditions, network relationships, and institutional support offers effect entrepreneurial intentions of German university scientists?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    20. Conor O'Kane & Vincent Mangematin & Will Geoghegan & Ciara Fitzgerald, 2015. "University Technology Transfer offices : the search for identity to build legimacy," Post-Print hal-01072998, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1403-:d:320528. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.