Entrepreneurial Environment of the University: Opportunities for Technological Spin-Offs

This empirical study examines the impact of entrepreneurial opportunities on the formation of entrepreneurial intention. Thereby, the study considers the specific university environment and research commercialization via university spin-offs in two ways. First, it focuses on entrepreneurial opportunities which emerge from present research results or students' studies. Second, it includes the entrepreneurial environment of the university by introducing the concept of a university's entrepreneurial climate. The results show that for research commercialization via spin-offs attitude is the main driver in the intention creation process. Furthermore, opportunity identification influences intention creation as well. Moreover, it came to light that opportunity identification mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and intention. Entrepreneurial climate has two effects directly by influencing attitude creation and indirectly by moderating the intention behavior relationship.