The Dynamisms of the Motivations of Academic Entrepreneurs in a Resource Constrained Environment

The aim of this paper is to investigate the dynamism of the motivations of academic entrepreneurs, who are operating in resource constrained environments. In-depth interviews are carried out to gather longitudinal data to investigate dynamisms, which are compared and contrasted with static motives identified from cross-sectional data gathered via an on-line survey. Findings reveal that academic entrepreneurial engagement is a process, which starts by engaging in teaching related academic entrepreneurial activities, and then diversifies into research related academic entrepreneurial activities and company creation. Since environment is resource constrained, the engagement in each type of activity is motivated initially by push factors, subsequently by pull factors, and during the shift by a combination of pull and push factors. These findings resolve the presence of two contradictory viewpoints in relation to static motives; namely, entrepreneurs being motivated by one type of motive (i.e. push or pull motive), and a mix of both types (i.e. pull and push motives), which is found to be determined by the stage at which cross-sectional data is collected. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of studying dynamisms to obtain an in-depth understanding about entrepreneurial motivations. Policy implications and future research avenues are discussed.