Intrapreneurship: Corporate Entrepreneurship ◾ 37
2.10 Intrapreneurship in Academia
All forms of academic research are inherently intrapreneurial. Many world-
class universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Harvard, have technology
transfer ofces designed to commercialize worthy academic research.
Unknowingly, the professors who worked on the grants and developed the
technology are intrapreneurs.
Technology Transfer, or Transfer of Technology and Technology
Commercialization, is the process of transferring skills, knowledge, technolo-
gies, methods of manufacturing, and samples of manufacturing and facilities
among universities and other institutions. Such transfer ensures that scien-
tic and technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users
who can then further develop and exploit the technology into new products,
processes, applications, materials, or services.
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The process of commercially exploiting research varies widely, includ-
ing licensing agreements and establishing joint ventures and partnerships
to share both the risks and rewards of bringing new technologies to
market. Other corporate actions, for example, spin-outs, are used where
the host organization does not have the necessary will, resources, or
skills to develop a new technology. Often these approaches are associ-
ated with raising venture capital (VC) to fund the development process;
VC is more common in the U.S. than in the European Union, which has
a more conservative approach to VC funding.
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Research spin-off compa-
nies are popular vehicles of commercialization in Canada, where the rate
of licensing of Canadian universities’ research remains far below that of
the U.S.
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There has been a marked increase in technology transfer intermediaries
specialized in their elds since 1980, stimulated in large part by the Bayh-
Dole Act (and equivalent legislation in other countries), which provided addi-
tional incentives for research exploitation. The U.S. Bayh-Dole Act of 1980
allows universities and non-prot institutions, under specic circumstances,
to retain intellectual property rights to discoveries resulting from federally
funded research (such as SBIR grants). The Act has been credited with stim-
ulating interest in technology transfer activities while generating increased
educational opportunities and commercial development.
For example, MIT “intrapreneurs” have started an average of 20 com-
panies per year, based on licenses to MIT technology. Successful start-
ups include A123, Akamai, Alnylam, Brontes, E Ink, Ember, Luminus
Devices, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, OmniGuide, QD Vision, Xtalic, and Z