Effect of Entrepreneurial Behaviour on Researchers' Knowledge Production: Evidence from Canadian Universities

Abstract

AbstractThe article studies the differences in knowledge production between academic researchers. In this perspective, it attempts at first to answer the following question: what factors explain differences in knowledge production between Canadian researchers in natural sciences and engineering? After a presentation of some of the empirical evidence related to this first question, a distinction between two types of academic institutions, entrepreneurial versus non‐entrepreneurial universities, is introduced. Drawing from this distinction, four empirical models are suggested to test differences in knowledge production between entrepreneurial and non‐entrepreneurial researchers. The results show, first, that funding, time devoted to teaching activities, research team and individual attributes have a similar but differentiated impact on knowledge production of entrepreneurial and non‐entrepreneurial researchers. Second, there are some unbalanced effects of the variables co‐operation, time devoted to research activities, academic fields and university size on the knowledge production of Canadian researchers on natural science and engineering.