Exploring the linkages between university technology transfer and entrepreneurship education programs: attitudes and perceptions amongst entrepreneurship academics

As the University Spin Out (USO) has become a highly desirable outcome for commercialization efforts, the development of entrepreneurial capacity within the university system becomes increasingly more important. We hypothesize that entrepreneurship education (EE) programs (ceterus paribus) may play a role in developing this capacity. This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of academics who are directly involved in the field of EE with four research goals in mind: to determine whether or not there are (1) perceived advantages to collaboration between EE programs and technology transfer offices (TTO) in spinning out technology, (2) identifiable university specific variables that influence these perceptions, (3) perceived barriers to collaboration, and (4) to identify whether these collaborations may already exist in some form.