Faculty Survey of Attitudes Towards Academic Entrepreneurship

1. Faculty Survey of Attitudes Towards Academic Entrepreneurship Harvey A. Goldstein University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Research partially funded by: The Kauffman Foundation, UNC Institute for Arts and Humanities, CURS

2. The Context • Research universities have taken a decided ‘entrepreneurial turn’ in the last 15-20 years • Commercialization of technology based upon university research has become an important institutional mission • But controversy over the appropriate roles and activities of the university • Commitment to norms of ‘open science’ • Unintended consequences of commercialization • Conflict-of-interest and even scandals(!) • Fiduciary responsibility of the university as producer of knowledge and truth threatened

3. Research Objectives • To what extent has academic entrepreneurship become consensually adopted, ‘taken-for-granted’ among faculty? • How do attitudes differ? • Are there boundaries of legitimacy and appropriateness?

4. Research Design • Stratified sample of U.S. research universities • 42 Research Universities – Very High • 26 public • 16 private • 29 Research Universities – High • 21 public • 8 private • 8 disciplines • Biological sciences Physics • Political science Economics • English History • Chemical engineering Computer science

5. Research Design, continued • Web-based questionnaire • Sent to (in each department): • Chair Plus • Stratified random sample • 1 Full • 1 Associate • 1 Assistant

6. Results • Questionnaire sent to 2,148 faculty • 112 unable to deliver • 510 respondents • Effective response rate = 25.0 percent

7. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

8. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

9. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

10. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

11. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

12. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

13. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

14. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

15. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

16. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate?

17. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate?

18. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate?

19. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement? 1: Strongly Agree 2: Agree 3: Neither Agree nor Disagree 4: Disagree 5: Strongly Disagree

20. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement? 1: Strongly Agree 2: Agree 3: Neither Agree nor Disagree 4: Disagree 5: Strongly Disagree

21. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate? 1: Strongly Agree 2: Agree 3: Neither Agree nor Disagree 4: Disagree 5: Strongly Disagree

22. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

23. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

24. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate?

25. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate?

26. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

27. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement?

28. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate?

29. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate?

30. Academic Entrepreneurship To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following is legitimate or appropriate?

31. How should we interpret these results? • Academic entrepreneurship as commercialization of knowledge has not become thoroughly institutionalized: ‘taken-for-grantedness’ and legitimacy questioned by many faculty • Important differences in perceived legitimacy among activities • Engagement (in RED) widely accepted • Activities mixing university duties and for-profit gain widely perceived as not legitimate

32. Interpretation of results, continued • Generally, attitudes do not differ significantly across rank or across type of university • Attitudes do differ significantly across disciplines • Opportunities for commercialization? • Self-selection? • Different norms?

33. Interpretation of results, continued • Commitment to norms of ‘open science’ widely held • Among faculty who have been active in commercialization • Among faculty who have received research funding from private industry • Challenge: how IHEs can become more engaged and stimulate innovation, yet maintain the norms and societal benefits of ‘open science’?

34. Future Directions • Measure the attitudes towards academic entrepreneurship of other stakeholders • Cross-national comparisons