Academic entrepreneurship: between myth and reality

Much attention has been devoted to academic entrepreneurship during the last thirty years, especially to academic spin-off activity. Starting from our own contribution to academic spin-off literature, we identify the main gaps in literature and we outline an agenda for additional research on some aspects of academic entrepreneurship, namely the establishment and performance of academic spin-offs in terms of individual, university, and system levels. As a generalization, a change of paradigm is required in order to address the multiple changes affecting the commercialization of university knowledge due to the numerous stakeholders involved, the variety of innovative entrepreneurial mechanisms, and the more “strategic approach” of universities toward entrepreneurship.