A Study of Academic Entrepreneurs Using Venture Capital Data

This paper studies academic entrepreneurs using a comprehensive venture capital database (VentureOne). I find that entrepreneurial activities among university employees are concentrated in the biotechnology and information technology industries. About two-thirds of the academic entrepreneurs locate their businesses in the same state as their universities. National academy membership and number of faculty awards - measures of a university’s research quality - are the most significant variables in explaining the number of academic entrepreneurs from a university. In contrast, the abundance of venture capital near the university has no significant effect on academic entrepreneurship.