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This study investigated the conditions required to foster healthcare innovation. Due to the limited research and development (R&D) capability of the Thai private sector, universities are increasingly expected to be emerging sources of healthcare products. However, the lack of experience in research commercialization requires that whether and how Thai university researchers can serve this mission be explored.

A promising dental implant product development project was investigated using the single-case research methodology. In-depth interviews were conducted with three key members involved in this innovative project. Questions concerning how a team of university researchers could embark on and overcome the obstacles encountered during their entrepreneurial project were asked. Based on the conceptual foundation of academic entrepreneurship, primary and additional secondary data were analyzed to acquire knowledge of academic entrepreneurship in healthcare in an emerging economy.

Healthcare inequality has generated entrepreneurial initiatives by healthcare researchers to develop low-cost dental implants. However, their efforts have been insufficient to progress to the commercialization stage. An informal relationship among socially oriented partners, including interdisciplinary experts, not-for-profit-oriented manufacturers and early adopters contributed to this project's success.

To foster healthcare innovation, the authors’ micro-level evidence of a socially oriented partnership on an informal basis indicates the need for inter-professional governance that maintains a cross-organizational environment between healthcare researchers and external parties. The future contributions to innovation management by healthcare professionals should be enhanced. A socially entrepreneurial model of healthcare innovation is suggested for further consideration as an enabling policy option for inter-professional partnership in emerging economies.

This study aims to investigate whether and how academic entrepreneurship can grow in less technologically advanced conditions, particularly those seen in emerging markets. The objective was to examine the pre-conditions for the birth and growth of university-based ventures in Thailand, where science commercialisation has not yet flourished.

A single case study approach was adopted for the in-depth study of the birth of an unusual entrepreneurial initiative in one academic unit within a dental school, an environment that typically focuses on academic work. Data from interviews with key members working in this unit were analysed to reveal the pre-conditions of entrepreneurship within this Thai university department, with a focus on the existing understanding of academic entrepreneurship.

Social conditions, rather than technology-related motives, were important for the birth of the university-based venture examined. Key triggers for academic entrepreneurship in this situation were found to closely align with a model of social entrepreneurship.

Evidence from this emerging economy can help expand the typology of academic entrepreneurship. In addition to the technology-led ventures typically seen, the results from this study call for socially oriented university-based ventures that tackle social problems in local society.

This study aims to investigate growth stage of an entrepreneurial venture born within Thai university and also to explore the future growth strategy which is formulated by the departmental team and at the same time is influenced by the school’s administrators.

Single case study approach was used to explore the growth of dental school’s internal venture aimed to produce low-cost pharmaceutical supplies. The interview data were matched with relevant entrepreneurship literatures to build theory from case study.

There is a clash in terms of growth strategy preferred by the parental organization and department-level team who found the venture. The dental school’s administrators expect their internal venture to be fully commercialized as spin-off according to typical academic entrepreneurship scheme. Differently, the entrepreneurial team prefers keeping the departmental venture inside to serve its socially entrepreneurial motivation with modest growth.

The case evidence implies different schools of thought that could influence the growth of university-based entrepreneurial venture. The university’s entrepreneurial development scheme thus is to incorporate such differences to move its departmental venture forward for sustainable growth.