Demonstrating the instrumentality of motivation oriented approaches for the explanation of academic spin-off formation—an application based on the Chinese case

Abstract

Much of the current empirical literature on academic spin-off formation focuses either on relevant framework conditions or on the potential academic entrepreneurs’ opportunity-seeking process. The interdependency of these two important factors, in contrast, remains understudied, even though it is theoretically well established in general entrepreneurship literature. Against this background this article makes the case for an integrated consideration of motivation and framework conditions. It demonstrates how this approach can convincingly explain changes in prevalent modes of spin-off creation in developing and transforming economies. To do so, data from 68 academic spin-off enterprises from China are investigated.