Broadening participation in entrepreneurship is an important topic and critical challenge that continues to gain attention and intervention programs within the STEM entrepreneurial ecosystem. However, the challenges of people of color in STEM entrepreneurship are amplified in technology intensive and the high-growth space of STEM innovation. Researchers, practitioners, academic scholars, and policy-makers have focused on training entrepreneurs of color in an inclusive way that considers both similarities and the uniqueness of the individuals that may be interested in a career as an entrepreneur. The National Science Foundation I-Corps is one such training program. Established in 2012, the I-Corps program brings NSF-funded researchers and industry expert together in an entrepreneurship and innovation training course. The expectation is that the training will lead to a growth in the translation of “deep tech” and in the creation of entrepreneurial ventures. The I-Corps program consists of both regional training as well as a national training program. Participation in the national program requires the formation of a team that consists of a Technical Lead, Entrepreneurial Lead, and a Business Mentor. Under-represented Groups (URGs) and women participation in I-Corps has been relatively low since inception. In this paper, we use survey data to explore the relationship amongst the differing roles and their perception as a participant in the national I-Corps training program. We consider demographics and gender identity to explore the experiences of the National I-Corps program participants. Additionally, we explore the impact of the engagement of the I-Corps staff with the participants and the perception of inclusivity and biasness within the training program.
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To entrepreneur or not to entrepreneur? How identity discrepancies influence enthusiasm for academic entrepreneurship
Recognizing the commercial potential of university-based inventions and discoveries, legislators and administrators have called upon academic scientists to become academic entrepreneurs. Yet, few academic scientists appear enthusiastic about taking on entrepreneurial activities. The intrinsic reasons underlying the lack of enthusiasm are poorly understood. We extend the research by applying self-discrepancy theory to explore the role of future-oriented self and other guides on enthusiasm for academic entrepreneurship. Integrating self-discrepancy theory with social identity theory, we also examine the moderating effects of scientist identification and academic entrepreneur social identification. We test our model on a sample of National Science Foundation (NSF) funded academic scientists who participated in the Innovation Corps (I-Corps) entrepreneurship training program. We find academic scientists’ self-guides influence their enthusiasm for academic entrepreneurship, while interestingly, their other-guides do not. Additionally, we find that higher identification with a scientist identity enhances the positive effect of the self-guide on entrepreneurial enthusiasm while higher identification with an academic entrepreneur identity attenuates the positive effect. Our paper contributes to the academic entrepreneurship literature by developing and testing a framework that integrates self-discrepancy theory with social identity theory for a nuanced understanding of academic scientists’ thought processes regarding engagement in entrepreneurial activities. Our study has implications for research policy by suggesting a way that universities can identify candidates for academic entrepreneurship activities.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10397650
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Journal of Technology Transfer
- Volume:
- 49
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0892-9912
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 1444-1470
- Size(s):
- p. 1444-1470
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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