Approaching the Agora – Determinants of Scientists´ Intentions to Purse Academic Entrepreneurship Volume 3 Jena Economic Research Papers 2009-10-02 2009 2007 2009-079 Academic entrepreneurship Entrepreneurial intentions Entrepreneurial scientist University-industry technology transfer Theory of planned behavior Gender This study investigates predictors of scientists’ intentions to commercialize their research through business founding. Analyzing a cross-sectional sample of 496 German scientists, we develop and test an intentions-based model of academic entrepreneurship combining personal and contextual factors. Empirical results demonstrate that intentions to start a science-based new venture are shaped by some personal characteristics (i.e., personal attitudes toward research commercialization, entrepreneurial control-beliefs, entrepreneurial self-identity, and prior entrepreneurial experience). Moreover, we find that the research context itself – i.e., normative influences of academic workplace peers – does not show a strong direct effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Moderator analyses deliver that peers have an influence primarily by person-context interactions via scientists’ sense of identification with these peers. A mediation analysis further indicates that gender-related differences in entrepreneurial control-beliefs might help explain the widely-observed low proportion of female scientist-entrepreneurs. jportal_jpjournal_00000016 2009-10-02T06:40:29.896Z 2010-12-17T11:54:08.982Z