Abstract:

Academic entrepreneurship originates from scientists commercializing the knowledge and experience they have gained throughout their careers, creating economic and social benefits. The concept of the entrepreneurial university, which emerges from aligning universities' teaching and research functions with economic development, lays the foundation for the concept of academic entrepreneurship.

Today, nearly all universities have added academic entrepreneurship to their economic development missions in recent years, and in one way or another, are engaged in technology transfer. Consequently, there has been a strong and steady increase in university technology transfer activities. On one hand, governments consider academic entrepreneurship as a crucial strategic tool in economic development policies, and on the other, universities are transitioning from being solely research and teaching institutions to models where commercial activity is an integral part of academic life. This shift highlights the significance of the academic entrepreneur concept. In light of these developments, understanding the factors that drive academics towards entrepreneurship and contributing to the growth of knowledge and understanding in this field has become increasingly important.

The academic entrepreneur, embedded within the argument that the university produces applied research and industry-focused activities for the economy's benefit, is defined as an academic who creates a new organization and presents his/her innovation/invention solution as a commercial opportunity in the market. In universities, entrepreneurial academics are described as individuals who effectively combine academic skills with entrepreneurial business acumen, generally benefit from external resources, raise significant amounts of money through state incentives or research projects, and establish business relationships to secure such grants.

Career motivation is expressed as individual characteristics that form a bridge between the individual and their environment. It relates to the trait of facilitating adaptation, the ability to respond to change, a continuous readiness tendency, and a clearly proactive approach. Therefore, investigating the relationships between career motivation and its determining factor, academic entrepreneurship orientation, has gained importance.

The aim of this study is to reveal the impact of academic entrepreneurship orientation on career motivation. A correlation analysis conducted with 560 academics at Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa determined that entrepreneurship orientation is significantly positively correlated with career motivation by 34.8%. As a result of regression analysis, it was determined that career motivation will increase by 0.365 unit when entrepreneurial orientation increases by 1 unit (β=0.365, p<0.01).

Keywords:

Academics, Entrepreneurship Orientation, Career Motivation, Statistical Analysis.