Academic Entrepreneurial Intention and Its Determinants: Exploring the Moderating Role of Innovation Ecosystem

Abstract

The paper aims to study factors that affect entrepreneurial intention among academicians (Prodan & Drnovsek 2010). We develop a framework in which the classical intention determinants derived from the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1991) interact with some elements of the environmental innovation ecosystem as identified in the Triple Helix Model (THM, Etzkovitz et al., 2007), namely financial/industrial, university and government supports. We contend that when individuals perceive high support from all these factors, the predictive power of entrepreneurial attitude, perceived behavioral control and social norms in shaping academic entrepreneurial intention generally increases. This study theoretically advances research on academic entrepreneurial intention, highlighting the interplay between individual cognitions and environmental cues and proposes some insights for practice and national policy makers.