Entrepreneurial orientation, technological propensity and academic research productivity

To what extent are academics entrepreneurial, and to what extent does an entrepreneurial orientation contribute to higher research productivity in higher education? According to some schools of thought, academic research is conducted within ‘paradigms’ or circumscribed areas of study, with the implication that certain research might not be inherently innovative. This research sought to investigate the extent to which individuals with higher self-reported levels of entrepreneurial orientation (EO), as well as the propensity to apply novel technological methods (such as crowdfunding and crowdsourced R&D) in their research, have higher levels of research productivity. Applying a comprehensive purposive sampling process, a large South African university was sampled. A total of 292 usable responses were obtained, and these were analysed using ordinary least squares. In order to test the robustness of results, two further tests were applied, namely bootstrapping and negative binomial regression analysis. Findings suggest that individuals with higher endowments of entrepreneurial orientation may be more research productive. Interestingly, innovativeness is not found to be significantly related to academic research productivity. It is concluded that further synthesis between educational and entrepreneurship theory might offer useful insights for the improvement of societally important research productivity. It is also concluded, however, that novel technological methods such as crowdfunding may be underutilised in the academic context. Given the resource constraints faced by those in higher education, particularly in the developing-country context of this study, this underutilisation may point to important opportunities in the sector.