Faculty Entrepreneurship in Research University Environments.

Opportunities for entrepreneurship present themselves to faculty at research universities with increasing frequency. However, recent research suggests that universities are not the source of many new ventures [6]. This article examines how faculty perceive and respond to entrepreneurial and commercialization opportunities. Implications can be drawn for university cultures and particularly administrators and faculty as well as for agents of economic development. Universities are some of the most enduring institutions in history. They are immense repositories of knowledge and expertise, primarily embedded in the resources of faculty. As the U.S. economy moves in the direction of entrepreneurial and technological development, the role of the university has diversified beyond traditional instructional and research missions. Commercial and political pressures coming primarily from outside universities seek to gradually adapt them into more flexible, economically responsive institutions. Current attention on "competitiveness" will only heighten these pressures and present universities with dilemmas involving different and changing values of various stakeholders. The purpose of this article is to explore one aspect of the current movement to redirect faculty resources and expand the role of faculty