From Vulnerable to Venerated: The Institutionalization of Academic Entrepreneurship in the Life Sciences

Jeannette A. Colyvas, Walter W. Powell

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

84 Scopus citations

Abstract

We examine the origins, acceptance, and spread of academic entrepreneurship in the biomedical field at Stanford, a university that championed efforts at translating basic science into commercial application. With multiple data sources from 1970 to 2000, we analyze how entrepreneurship became institutionalized, stressing the distinction between factors that promoted such activity and those that sustained it. We address individual attributes, work contexts, and research networks, discerning the multiple influences that supported the commercialization of basic research and contributed to a new academic identity. We demonstrate how entrepreneurship expands from an uncommon undertaking to a venerated practice.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationThe Sociology of Entrepeneurship
EditorsMartin Ruef, Michael Lounsbury
Pages219-259
Number of pages41
EditionSUPPL.
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

Publication series

NameResearch in the Sociology of Organizations
NumberSUPPL.
Volume25
ISSN (Print)0733-558X

Funding

Two other changes occured during this recent period. One, entrepreneurial activity is no longer the province of either esteemed professors or non-tenure track scientists. Associate professors and assistant professors became involved, some with considerable success. Here we see again how entrepreneurial activity permeates down the ranks, involving a greater number of faculty at all levels. Two, involvement with industry became more common, and new hires were much more likely to have those contacts. Moreover, much of the contact came in the late 1990s. While only two faculty – Professors O and S – garnered significant industry funding, collaboration with biotechnology companies clearly increased. Professor O's contract with a biotechnology firm was for a project funded by a government agency. Professor S's contract came from an industry–government–academic consortium that coordinated a multi-organizational discovery effort. Consider also that the research results of this enterprise were made available for public dissemination, and the patenting of the results was restricted. Thus, an important transformation began to take place in which industry, government, and the academy were increasingly interlinked at the frontiers of science ( Powell & Owen-Smith, 1998 ; Vallas & Kleinman, 2006 ). Rather than industry pulling faculty into the world of commerce, it appears industry and government were drawn to the fundamental science conducted in the department.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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