Academic entrepreneurship and academics’ careers: a multi-dimensional analysis in the UK, Australia and Italy

Giunti, Giulia (2019). Academic entrepreneurship and academics’ careers: a multi-dimensional analysis in the UK, Australia and Italy. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis aims to improve the understanding of academic entrepreneurship, i.e. academics’ involvement in entrepreneurial activities, and how it is intertwined with academics’ career prospects, interests, and orientations. To do so, the study adopts a micro-meso-macro level analysis, looking at individual variables, as well as how the individual interacts with the contexts in which is embedded. In order to enhance the possibility of exploring the role of each of the three dimensions and their interaction, the study has followed a cross-country comparative design; academics from the STEM sciences were recruited from three research-intensive universities, located in the U.K., Australia and Italy. A sequential mixed-method approach has enabled analysis of both the impact of individual attitudes upon AE, as well as how factors such as work-identity management processes, disciplinary norms, career stage, sex, support received, and career promotion criteria influence academics’ perceptions of the boundaries of ‘science and business’.
The outcomes provide valuable insight regarding the implications of the move towards an ‘entrepreneurial university’, by considering the heterogeneity found across groups of academics and the divergencies across national contexts, but also by taking into consideration the persistence of certain traditional values and ethos within academia, as found across all three countries.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):