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This research investigated how biological scientists' perceived academic reputation, community trust, and norms all influence their perceived academic reciprocity, which eventually leads to their data sharing intentions.

A research model was developed based on the theory of collective action, and the research model was empirically evaluated by using the Structural Equation Modeling method based on a total of 649 survey responses.

The results suggest that perceived academic reputation significantly increases perceived community trust, norm of data sharing, and academic reciprocity. Also, both perceived community trust and norm of data sharing significantly increases biological scientists' perceived academic reciprocity, which significantly affect their data sharing intentions. In addition, both perceived community trust and norm of data sharing significantly affect the relationship between perceived academic reciprocity and data sharing intention.

This research shows that the theory of collective action provides a new theoretical lens for understanding scientists' data sharing behaviors based on the mechanisms of reputation, trust, norm, and reciprocity within a research community.

This research offers several practical implications for facilitating scientists' data sharing behaviors within a research community by increasing scientists' perceived academic reciprocity through the mechanisms of reputation, trust, and norm of data sharing.

The collective action perspective in data sharing has been newly proposed in this research; the research sheds light on how scientists' perceived academic reciprocity and data sharing intention can be encouraged by building trust, reputation, and norm in a research community.

Purpose – University–industry relationships raise concerns about the influence of commercial interests on academic science. In this paper, we investigate how academic scientists who collaborate with industry understand their professional identity in relation to their research money and the notion of scientific “independence.”

Design/Methodology/Approach – We conducted in-depth interviews with 84 scientists and 65 administrators from 9 U.S. universities. The scientists do research in the field of agricultural biotechnology and collaborate with industry. The administrators have oversight responsibility for academic research, university–industry collaborations, and technology transfer.

Findings – We find that our respondents are wary of industry funding but believe that it has an appropriate place in academic research. Typically, industry money is treated either as seed money for preliminary research or as flexible funding that supplements the core, essential competitive grants academic scientists obtain from public agencies. We find that academic scientists talk about the mix of public and private funds in their research funding portfolios in ways that aim to construct an “independent” investigator professional identity.

Originality/Value – Our study is a case of how money is inscribed with meanings in institutional settings. It contributes to scholarship in economic sociology of work by revealing how money is used by academic scientists to signal their alignment with institutionally sanctioned professional norms and by administrators to evaluate scientists' work.

In this paper, we present and apply a new framework – the Poles of Production for Producers/Poles of Production for Users (PFP/PFU) model – to empirically study how one particular group of academic scientists has responded to neoliberal changes in science policy and funding in Canada. The data we use are from a qualitative case study of 20 basic health scientists affiliated with a research-intensive university in a large Canadian city. We use the PFP/PFU model to explore the symbolic strategies (the vision of scientific quality) and practical strategies (the acquisition of funding and production of knowledge outputs) scientists adopt to maintain or advance their own position of power in the scientific field. We also compare similarities and differences among scientists trained before and after the rise of neoliberal policy. The PFP/PFU model allows us to see how these individual strategies cumulatively contribute to the construction of dominant and alternate modes of knowledge production. We argue that the alignments and misalignments between quality vision and practice that scientists in this study experienced reflect the symbolic struggles that are occurring among scientists, and between the scientific and political field, over two competing logics and reward systems (PFP/PFU).

In this chapter, we review the literature that analyzes how the peculiar missions, rules, and incentive systems in the scientific community affect the process and outcomes of the commercialization of academic research. We will focus on how the peculiar institutional logics of academia determine the decision of academics to commercialize their research, and how these logics affect the outsourcing of research from firms to academic laboratories, as well as the attempts of firms to reproduce academic incentive systems within their research labs by allowing their researchers to publish and offering them financial rewards based on their standing in the scientific community. Finally, we report on research that has analyzed how the rules of the scientific community might lead to the production, transfer, and commercialization of false knowledge.

We extend the literature on scientific discovery and commercialization by examining entrepreneurial action by university-based scientists. Specifically, we investigate the decision process and the paths to commercialize academic technologies. University-based technology transfer involves multiple stakeholders with competing interests; hence, we believe researchers should apply a multilevel theoretical lens, which starts with the disclosure of discoveries made by scientists in their labs. We build a multilevel framework that views the scientists’ choice to first disclose viable discoveries to pursue entrepreneurial action as a function of three factors: (i) a scientist's rent orientation, (ii) a university's rent doctrine, and (iii) the rent doctrine of the scientific field in which the scientist conducts research. We suggest that commercial disclosure most often occurs when there is alignment between these three factors. Lastly, we advance an agenda for future empirical research by developing specific propositions about the key constructs and relationships concerning university-based entrepreneurial action.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how attitudinal, normative and control beliefs influence scientists’ article sharing through ResearchGate.

A survey method was employed to examine a research model of scientists’ article sharing through ResearchGate. A total of 264 survey responses from biological scientists in the USA were used to evaluate the research model by using partial least square based structural equation modeling.

The results showed that scientists’ attitudinal beliefs (i.e. perceived relationship, reputation and risk), normative beliefs (i.e. subjective norm, perceived academic culture and community norm of article sharing) and control belief (i.e. perceived ease of use) all significantly affect their attitudes toward article sharing and article sharing intentions through ResearchGate.

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to develop the research model, and the specific research constructs from prior literature were incorporated in the model. The TPB and related research constructs nicely explained biological scientists’ article sharing through ResearchGate.

This study suggests that academic libraries can better promote their scientists’ article sharing through digital platforms such as institutional repositories as well as scholarly social media. This can be achieved by emphasizing its benefits, including potential relationships or collaborations, positive academic reputation and community norms of article sharing, and by decreasing scientists’ concerns about copyright infringements and effort expectancy involved in article sharing.

As one of the initial studies in scientists’ article sharing through ResearchGate, this study provides a holistic picture of how attitudinal, normative and control beliefs all affect scientists’ article sharing through ResearchGate.

The purpose of this study is to examine different aspects of information seeking behaviour, and specifically the information seeking behaviour and information needs of Indian astronomy/astrophysics academics, including the relationship between various variables such as academic, rank‐wise statuses, age‐wise of characteristics, and methods for keeping their knowledge up‐to‐date.

A stratified random sample survey was used for gathering data. However, to support and authenticate the data quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. The questionnaire was mailed and was also available online. Some 400 academics from 12 astronomy and astrophysics information centres and libraries were surveyed using the questionnaire and were interviewed. The questionnaire response rate was 72 percent (288/400).

The study findings show: differences in information seeking behaviour and needs for various academic is sub‐fields of Indian astronomy/astrophysics, and highlights the value of information seeking behaviour to scientists working in astronomy/astrophysics. The study concludes that astronomy/astrophysics academics were making use of Astrophysics Data System followed by their use of e‐archives for education and research. Astronomy/astrophysics academics work in a unique setting with specialized needs. The study findings underscored the need to continue accessing specialized needs to find innovative solutions. There are challenges and opportunities for exciting new initiatives.

This is the first in‐depth study in India exploring the information seeking behaviour and information needs of astronomy/astrophysics academics. It also gives the latest account of information seeking behaviour of information users in astronomy/astrophysics discipline. The study is also expected to guide other information service organisations to cope with their users' needs, by adopting survey methods, tools, protocols used in this study.

In this chapter, the authors assert that traditional advanced degree programs underserve young scientists, and train them primarily for a career in academia pursuing basic research. Data drawn from the Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT) from 1996 to 2006 show that only one fourth of all scientists are engaged in basic academic research. The majority of young scientists pursue alternative career paths in applied and in industrial research settings. Several such career options are highlighted, and the conclusion is drawn that graduate education should be broadened to provide students with complementary business and entrepreneurship knowledge, skills and attitudes required for success in each option. Four examples of innovative programs that address this need at the University of Illinois are discussed, including a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Management (CEM) for Life Scientists, a Certificate in Business Administration (CIB) for Nonbusiness Majors, the Illinois Professional Science Master's (PSM), and various nondegree, experiential opportunities.

Drawing on the social cognition theory, the purpose of this research is to explore how selected individual and organizational determinants, namely individual academic output (AO) and previous commercialization experience, organizational scientific reputation and entrepreneurial support policies (ESPs) influence their broadly-defined academic entrepreneurial intentions, involving spin-off intention (SOI), patenting and licensing intention (PLI), contract research and consulting intention (CCI) through theory of planned behaviour (TPB) modelling.

The current research constructs the framework by combining reciprocal determinism in the social cognition theory with TPB. To testify the hypotheses, partial least squares structural equational modelling (PLS–SEM) technique with 272 observations from Chinese universities was utilized.

The findings show that academic-related determinants, namely individual AO and organizational reputation (OR), are more likely to influence academic scientists' SOI through TPB modelling, while entrepreneurial-related determinants in terms of individual previous commercialization experience (PCE) and ESPs in higher education organizations are more influential for promoting behavioural intention to all kinds of academic entrepreneurship activities through TPB modelling. The more formal academic entrepreneurship involvement (engaging in creating spin-offs) is better explained through TPB modelling, especially the continuous mediating effects of subjective norms and entrepreneurial attitude and perceived behavioural control are more effective on spin-off activities. In addition, subjective norms are more influential in mediating relationships between individual or organizational antecedents and academic entrepreneurial intentions in the Chinese context.

Combining the social cognition theory and TPB, this study first investigated how individual intentions to engage in broadly-defined academic entrepreneurial activities are promoted through TPB modelling. The results, relating to the divergence of different determinants shaping different academic entrepreneurial intentions through various paths in TPB modelling, will provide insight into university managers and policymakers to improve academic entrepreneurship engagement in the Chinese context.

This paper examines and discusses the need for micro-level analyses of academic entrepreneurship and outlines a micro-level research agenda for the study of academic entrepreneurship.

Based on a review of academic literature on academic entrepreneurship, this study focuses on individual actors and suggests some future research agendas.

The authors highlight that more studies dealing with academic entrepreneurship need to take a micro-level perspective, thereby outline several fruitful avenues of research: (1) star scientists and principal investigators, (2) TTO professionals, (3) graduate entrepreneurs, (4) university administrators, (5) policy makers and funders as well as (6) micro-level organisational routines.

This paper derives three main implications for management practice and policy. First, there is a real need to develop the managerial skills, competencies and capabilities of scientists and individuals. Second, policy makers need to ensure the necessary resources to pursue a paradigm shift towards more entrepreneurial thinking and action and create adequate incentives. Third, firms need to offer support and guidance on how to best commercialise and transfer scientific knowledge and ideally complement support structures of universities and research institutes.

This paper provides an organising framework for the study of micro-level academic entrepreneurship and emphasises the need to focus further on individual actors and how their actions, behaviours and approaches contribute to academic entrepreneurship in different institutional, environmental and cultural contexts.