Special Articles

Academic Entrepreneurship:An American (Individualistic) Perspective

James D. Kettenhofen, Nicholas S. Vonortas

Abstract

Universities have traditionally served as places for teaching and learning, generators of new knowledge and understanding, repositories and preservers of knowledge, transmitters of values and builders of citizens, and neutral spaces for debate. In the United States public universities also took early on the role of assisting local economic development. In recent years, universities across the developed world have been expected to serve as prime sources of new ideas, generators of new technology, founders of new companies, and critical contributors to economic growth. Ironically, however, while society increasingly focuses on this latter role, it still compensates universities and their faculty in pretty much the old way, that is primarily on the basis of research and teaching. This inconsistency has created deep tensions that policy makers are desperately trying to resolve. This paper deals with this newly acquired role of universities through the lens of incentives for both individuals and organizations. It argues that proper incentive alignment is badly needed, that the nurturing of individual learned entrepreneurs is achievable under the right conditions, and that all sides of the triple helix have an important role to play.

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