Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Dr Jan-Michael Ross

Business School

Associate Professor of Strategy
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 5105jan.ross Website

 
 
//

Location

 

276Business School BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Fini:2022:10.1287/orsc.2021.1455,
author = {Fini, R and Perkmann, M and Ross, J-M},
doi = {10.1287/orsc.2021.1455},
journal = {Organization Science},
pages = {495--871},
title = {Attention to exploration: the effect of academic entrepreneurship on the production of scientific knowledge},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1455},
volume = {33},
year = {2022}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - We study how becoming an entrepreneur affects an academic scientist’s research. We propose that entrepreneurship will shift scientists’ attention away from intra-disciplinary research questions and toward new bodies of knowledge relevant for downstream technology development. This will propel scientists to engage in exploration, meaning they work on topics new to them. In turn, this shift toward exploration will enhance the impact of the entrepreneurial scientist’s subsequent research, as concepts and models from other bodies of knowledge are combined in novel ways. Entrepreneurship leads to more impactful research, mediated by exploration. Using panel data on the full population of scientists at a large research university, we find support for this argument. Our study is novel in that it identifies a shift of attention as the mechanism underpinning the beneficial spill-over effects from founding a venture on the production of public science. A key implication of our study is that commercial work by academics can drive fundamental advances in science.
AU  - Fini,R
AU  - Perkmann,M
AU  - Ross,J-M
DO  - 10.1287/orsc.2021.1455
EP  - 871
PY  - 2022///
SN  - 1047-7039
SP  - 495
TI  - Attention to exploration: the effect of academic entrepreneurship on the production of scientific knowledge
T2  - Organization Science
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1455
UR  - https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/orsc.2021.1455
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/85537
VL  - 33
ER  -
Download