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This chapter surveys the notion of ‘academic entrepreneur’, as it emerges from a wide range of contributions to the economics and sociology of science. Insights from those contributions are then used to examine critically the most recent literature on academic spin-offs and universityindustry technology transfer.

The chapter proceeds in a cumulative fashion. We start first with the rhetorical device of putting forward a ‘straightforward definition’of academic entrepreneurship, one which is most intuitive and at the same time traceable in many recent policy initiatives, both in the US and in Europe (section 8.2).