Beyond the Isomorphistic View of the Academic Entrepreneur; An empirical exploration of norms and values of knowledge dissemination of university scientists

Abstract

The paper contributes to the policy discussion on the new, entrepreneurial role of universities in knowledge-based economies. Whereas most contributions on academic entrepreneurship and knowledge-transfer focuses on the organizational and policy level, we focus on the micro norms, values and routines of knowledge dissemination of the individual faculty members and question if, and to what extent, these are converging to norms of entrepreneurial science. In order to do so, we build on new empirical data, gathered between October 2005 and January 2006. It concerns four biotechnology cases of basic research units at two research universities in the Netherlands and two in the United Kingdom. We conclude with policy implication and assess whether the micro level data is congruent with the organizational convergence towards entrepreneurial universities in knowledge-based economies.