AbstractThis article investigates how institutional changes facilitate university-centric interactions from the Triple Helix model of innovation perspective. The Triple Helix research framework consists of three cyclical dimensions, namely government institutional changes, the roles, missions, and interactions of universities, and university-centric networks. By developing a triangulation method, the qualitative dataset of the Taiwanese institutional changes includes science and technology, educational, and industrial policies; the quantitative dataset (1986–2015) collects the patents of Taiwanese universities via the US Patent and Trademark Office database. The results reveal that integrated policies systemically facilitate institutional changes that drive the transition of university's roles and missions, while the university-centric networks have transformed from isolated to loosely-coupled and ultimately, to densely interactive networks. This article concludes that government institutional changes have effectively transformed the roles and interactions of universities with other actors towards entrepreneurial universities, in turn, have facilitated a more interactive Triple Helix model of innovation in Taiwan. Some policy implications are suggested.
Although academic research institutions have become a major player in protecting, transferring, and commercializing their knowledge base, little research has examined in enterprising research results from the angle of academic entrepreneurs. This paper examined the factors fostering academic entrepreneurship from institutional, organizational, and individual aspects, especially in Taiwan. Based on the Patent Database of the National Science Council, Taiwan, 474 academic entrepreneurs who owned patents were identified. Via a postal survey, 229 questionnaires were collected with an overall. response rate of 48%. Through factor analysis, five key success factors fostering academic entrepreneurship were identified. The key success factors to foster academic entrepreneurship in Taiwan include entrepreneurial network, organizational infrastructures, entrepreneurial legitimacy, entrepreneurial pro-activeness, and entrepreneurial rewards. Thus, the paper concluded that nurturing academic entrepreneurship in Taiwan is evidently shaped by not only micro factors such as entrepreneurial networks and characteristics but also macro factors such as entrepreneurial infrastructures and rewards from universities and increasing legitimacy of academic entrepreneurship.