Exploring the mindset of university entrepreneurs : Do they have a different resource logic?

• Principal Topic: Universities are today increasingly acknowledged as powerful drivers of innovation, job creation and economic growth. To promote and support university-based entrepreneurship there has been a tremendous increase in the supply of entrepreneurship courses and the creation of business incubators. As a result of this development there is an increasing group of entrepreneurs that have been educated or fostered in the university context, and who often continue to develop their new ventures in close interaction with the university. The principal research question we ask in this paper is whether university entrepreneurs have a different resource logic compared to entrepreneurs that start up their ventures independently of the university and its surrounding innovation system. Resource logic is in the paper defined as a set of ideas for how to secure and use resources in the start-up process, and we link this concept to three streams of research that can be related to the resource logic of entrepreneurs; effectual decision making, bootstrapping orientation; and personal networking.Method: The empirical study was designed as a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was sent out to two groups of entrepreneurs resulting in responses from 182 university entrepreneurs and 209 non- university entrepreneurs. The hypotheses are tested using parametric and non-parametric tests in SPSS.Results and Implications: In line with our hypotheses the results suggest that university entrepreneurs to a larger extent have a mindset that favours both effectual reasoning and the use of bootstrapping. When it comes to use of network contacts the results were however contrary to our hypothesis. In sum, our findings add to our knowledge about the extent to which the close connection to the university has any significant influence on the resource acquisition behaviour of university entrepreneurs once they start an entrepreneurial career. The paper develops and uses the concept of “resource logic”. On the basis of this concept the paper provides general implications for our understanding of differences in the mindset of entrepreneurs in the start-up process.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Matematik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Mathematics (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

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