The Role of Identity and Championing in Academic Entrepreneurship: Qualitative Evidence from Postdocs in U.S. Universities and Federal Laboratories

I study the technology transfer process at universities and federal laboratories, based on 49 interviews of postdoctoral scientists and their supervisors (principal investigators or PIs) at two large U.S. research universities and four major National Institute of Health and Department of Energy federal laboratories. This dissertation is unique in three respects. First, with rare exceptions, most studies of technology transfer have focused on tenure track faculty at universities. Second, there have been few recent studies of technology transfer at federal laboratories. Third, most studies of technology transfer have ignored “micro” topics as identity, championing, and leadership. This dissertation fills those voids. Specifically, in this thesis, I focus on boundary work conducted by postdoctoral scientists and micro-institutional work of their Principal Investigators as change agents, in consideration of different institutional constraints of universities and federal laboratories which can affect the entrepreneurial activities of scientists. Having universities and federal laboratories as study contexts, I demonstrate 1) how institutions constrain yet enable individual agency; 2) how individuals engage in a new role that can potentially create conflict with their central identity; and 3) the role of the institutional change agents, or institutional entrepreneurs, who can lead to changes in the attitudes and perceptions of their subordinates, in the face of tensions derived from conflicting yet coexisting norms.