Building Entrepreneurial Behaviours in Academic Scientists: Past Perspective and New Initiatives

Abstract

In this chapter, we make the case that capacity development initiatives aimed at generating greater entrepreneurial behaviours among academic scientists remain under-explored in the literature. We suggest that external government-funded programmes, in the form of macro-level grand challenges, that foster greater entrepreneurial engagement and commercial orientation among the science community have been under-examined in comparison to other key meso- and micro-level determinants and challenges such as scientists’ motives/incentives, professional role identity, social environment, support structures and their individual attributes and competencies. We clarify the notion of entrepreneurial behaviour and how it relates to academic entrepreneurship. The chapter closes with an example of an ongoing publicly funded capacity development programme underway in New Zealand (NZ) titled ‘Building NZ’s Innovation Capacity’.