Research Funding and Academic Entrepreneurship: A Meta-Analytical Examination

Academic entrepreneurship, defined as the commercialization of innovations developed at universities, is critical for economic growth and wealth creation. In this study, we investigate a critical antecedent to academic entrepreneurship – research funding. Using a meta-analysis of prior studies, we find that research funding has a positive correlation with academic entrepreneurship. Contrary to our expectations, we find an intriguing moderating effect in which the relationship between research funding and academic entrepreneurship is stronger when research and development munificence at the country level is low rather than high. In addition to testing this moderating effect, we also explore different sources of research funding and types of commercial output. We find that university funding has the strongest link with academic entrepreneurship, followed by industry and government funding. Further, we find that start-ups have the strongest link with research funding, followed by licenses and patents. We conclude by discussing implications and future research opportunities in the entrepreneurship and innovation literature.