When Scientists Become Entrepreneurs

By analyzing the standard working conditions that scientists are exposed to at their workplaces, we find that those who are engaged in more diverse activities are also significantly more likely to have higher start-up intentions when working in an entrepreneurial environment. In other words, those scientists who are engaged in many different fields in the context of their academic work simultaneously develop a higher propensity to transition into entrepreneurship in the near future compared to those researchers who undertake a lower number of activities due to their enhanced skill sets.

That is from a new paper by Moog et al. Factors that matter:
1) Diversity in activities and fields, which means: 

(1) patent activities; (2) licensing activities; (3) collaborative research activities with academic and non-academic third parties; (4) consultancy; (5) publications; (6) contract research; (7) free sharing of research results; (8) shared usage of equipment; (9) education of students and PhD candidates; (10) advising for master and PhD theses; (11) staff outflow; (12) contribution to committees, boards, and commissions, and (13) informal meetings and contacts.

2) Balanced time allocation among

(1) teaching; (2) academic administration; (3) research; (4) non-commercial utilization of research findings; (5) commercial utilization of research findings; (6) procurement of new research projects; (7) other fields of activity.

The two factors above need to be combined with working with entrepreneurial peers . . .