The relationship between entrepreneurship characteristics and attitude towards knowledge commercialization

Abstract

Universities contribute to the economy through commercialization of their research output which plays an important role in economic development along with their traditional role of teaching. Universities need to provide an environment for the faculties to engage in entrepreneurial activities for successful technology transfer. There is a need to enrich the literature on entrepreneurial characteristics that are required to enhance the commercialization activities among faculty members of research universities. Thus, this study examined the relationship between entrepreneurship characteristics and attitude towards knowledge commercialization among academic staff of research universities. A random sample of 94 faculty members from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia participated in a survy to investigate those relationships. The results showed that leadership and self-confidence are the most important characteristics to increase commercialization. In addition to that, there is a positive relationship between all entrepreneurial characteristics with attitude towards commercialization among faculty members. The study recommends that the management of universities should promote entrepreneurial characteristics development of faculty members in order to increase commercialization of research activities.