Abstract
The research on intellectual capital carried out so far for the academic entrepreneurial development is few but has clearly shown its importance. However, the overall contribution of intellectual capital to the performance of academic entrepreneurial projects of both technologies, social and environmental or university spin-offs remains little studied. Even studies carried out on this subject, often, focus only on a single component and favor, for the most part, the quantitative approach. This posture does not allow us to understand which of the three components of intellectual capital is the best predictor of academic entrepreneurial performance. Thus, the results of these previous studies provide little information on how to increase entrepreneurship by mobilizing intellectual capital. To fill these gray areas and facilitate an understanding of the causal link between intellectual capital and academic entrepreneurial performance, a semi-structured interview of eleven entrepreneurs and a survey of 278 researchers and students from four Chadian universities were conducted. The research process was mixed. We used an approach that focused on both economic/financial entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship (which is part of the obligations of Chadian universities) and societal/environmental entrepreneurship. During data production, we have put forward the criterion of participation of the actor (researcher-student-practitioner) in the various phases of activities in the process of implementation of entrepreneurship. Our results have shown that human capital (R<sup>2 </sup>= 0.21) and relational capital (R<sup>2</sup>= 0.29) are the best predictors of academic entrepreneurial performance. It is mainly relational capital that contributes mainly (b = 31%) academic entrepreneurial performance. These results are explained by the fact that human capital and relational capital are deployed for the purposes of creativity, contact, creation of business networks, etc., while structural capital plays an essential role in the credibility and influence of universities. Finally, it is the combination of the three components of intellectual capital that plays a decisive role (R<sup>2 </sup>= 0.85) in achieving academic entrepreneurial performance. Thus, universities are invited to revitalize their network of actors, to promote collaborative research, to advocate the agile approach and to enrich their human capital so that it fulfills its mission as an open innovation subject, without neglecting their capital structure for its undeniable support role.
Highlights
The university community attaches real privilege to entrepreneurship (i) as a field of scientific investigation and (ii) as a training-action field
In the process of building intellectual capital, it appears that the value and importance of this capital are determined by its potential contribution to the main objectives pursued by the university
There is no homogeneous way of building academic intellectual capital, but its importance stems from the breadth of the three core missions of any university, including teaching, research and innovation, and the provision of services to the community
Summary
The university community attaches real privilege to entrepreneurship (i) as a field of scientific investigation and (ii) as a training-action field. The originality of this research lies in the combination of the three components of intellectual capital (human capital, structural capital, and relational capital) to understand academic entrepreneurial performance. Article aims to answer the following question: what are the components of intellectual capital that have a strong explanatory power over academic entrepreneurial performance?. To produce the qualitative data, eleven semi-structured interviews, with entrepreneurs (researchers and students) from four Chadian universities, were conducted and analyzed in depth. Quantitative data is generated from 178 entrepreneurs made up of researchers and students who have been actively involved in the process of setting up university entrepreneurship. This article is a continuation of the previous publication of our doctoral thesis on a similar topic
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