Impact of Self-Regulated Learning on Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition and Academic Entrepreneurship Performance

The ratio of academic scientists to the labor force in Malaysia has increased. However, the contribution of academic scientists to commercialize research discoveries remains limited. Successful research commercialization or university technology transfer requires entrepreneurial effort that may involve skills beyond the traditional roles of academics. The ability to identify the commercial opportunity of research, i.e. entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, has been proven to be a critical skill for an academic entrepreneur. Earlier findings in this area would have been far more useful if the antecedents of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition were recognized. Although self-regulated learning has been inferred to as informal entrepreneurship education for academic entrepreneurs, there has been a lack of evidence on how it influences their academic entrepreneurship performance. This paper examined the characteristics of academic entrepreneurs and the key success factors, whether academics’ opportunity recognition ability is influenced by their self-regulated learning behavior. A quantitative research design was employed based on a case study of a technological university in Malaysia involving 115 academic entrepreneurs. Structural equation modeling analysis results revealed that academics’ opportunity recognition and social capital are the most important determinants of their academic entrepreneurship performance. The efficiency of the Technology Transfer Office and the ease of securing funding play influential roles too, but to a smaller extent. Most importantly, opportunity recognition is strengthened by self-regulated learning, through frequent deliberate practices in information and knowledge seeking that enable scientists to be more creative and innovative in translating research into marketable products and technology.