Entrepreneurship from the Ivory Tower: Do Incentive Systems Matter? | CU Experts

There has been a paucity of research to date that has explored whether; incentive systems--in the form of monetary payments to inventors, their; department or institution, or to university technology transfer office; (UTTO) personnel--affect entrepreneurial activities at U.S. universities.; To shed light on whether financial incentives to scientists, their; departments, and UTTO personnel effect entrepreneurial activity, we used; both qualitative data (structured interviews with 128 UTTO directors) and; quantitative data from surveys and databases available on the web. Our; results show surprisingly and opposite to our theoretical predictions that; incentives to scientists and to their departments are negatively related; to entrepreneurial activity. In addition and consistent with theory-based; predictions, pay to UTTO personnel is positively related to; entrepreneurial activity. We conclude with a discussion that offers some; implications to research, practice, and theory in the field of technology; transfer.

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