What determines academic entrepreneurship success? A social identity perspective

Universities and institutes are increasingly recognized as important sources in national innovation systems. As such, an increasing number of academics are participating in entrepreneurial and other commercial activities, and the topic of academic entrepreneurship has attracted wide attention. This paper aims to explore the effect of entrepreneurial identification on academic entrepreneurship from the social identity theory viewpoint and consider the effects of context (social capital inertia, entrepreneurial narrative). On the basis of 248 academic entrepreneur samples, empirical results indicate that the relationship between entrepreneurial identification and academic entrepreneurship performance is positive. In addition, the abovementioned relationship is negatively moderated by social capital inertia while positively moderated by entrepreneurial narrative. Moreover, entrepreneurial identification is best for academic entrepreneurship performance in the context of low levels of social capital inertia and high levels of entrepreneurial narrative. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, limitation and future research are discussed.