Heterogeneity in PhD entrepreneurship: strategic alignment of institutional, organisational, and individual factors

Alessandro Muscio () and Fumi Kitagawa
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Alessandro Muscio: University of Foggia
Fumi Kitagawa: University of Birmingham

Small Business Economics, 2025, vol. 64, issue 2, No 11, 489-510

Abstract: Abstract Much of the existing research on PhD entrepreneurship is focused on Academic Spin-Offs (ASOs) within the parent institution’s formal intellectual property (IP) structure. Cross-level analysis of a survey administered to 23,500 PhD students in Italy shows the heterogeneity of PhD students’ entrepreneurial activities, which, in addition to ASOs, include start-ups, corporate spin-offs and other types of businesses. We examine the types of drivers that matter most for different forms of PhD entrepreneurial ventures. Our findings reveal two forces at play: a technology-push model where PhD students rely on IP and support from the parent university, and a demand-led model that involves support from industry and sources of external finance. This study highlights the strategic alignment among the determinants of PhD entrepreneurship at the micro, meso and macro levels. These determinants include the individual PhD student’s choices, the interactions with different stakeholders and reconciliation of the tensions represented by the organizational and institutional resources and infrastructures.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial university; Doctoral students; Student entrepreneurship; Spin-off; Start-up; Corporate spin-off (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 L31 O32 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-024-00916-0

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