A research submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration

Research Studies Project Report (M.BA.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2016

Contribution of academics towards the business plays a significant role in a country's economy. It has recognized in the past and proved in some countries that the virtue of acting on the entrepreneurial way of university lecturers, in addition to their traditional ways of teaching and doing research. Identifying the lecturers' motives behind the way of acting entrepreneurially is advantageous in strengthening the tripartite relationship between university, industry and government. Hence, the aim of this research was to identifying the key motives of university lecturers in Sri Lanka to act as academic entrepreneurs. The data were gathered from university lecturers at three main state engineering faculties which possess different contextual factors from each other. This is a qualitative research based on the interviews with a sample of thirty lecturers. Basically, motives of individuals to engage in academic entrepreneurial endeavours were investigated. Then, the impact of formal and informal groups in the involvement of such activities was assessed. Finally, eight key motives were identified and contributed fourteen propositions all together to the literature on academic entrepreneurship based on Sri Lankan university contexts, group influence and individual factors.