Maker motives and entrepreneurial opportunity evaluation in academic makerspaces

Abstract To stimulate entrepreneurship, many universities have established academic makerspaces. So far, we know little about this phenomenon. Specifically, we lack insights into the entrepreneurial motivations of academic makers and the types of opportunities they find appealing. Drawing on a conjoint experiment and a survey of 144 academic makers, we analyze their entrepreneurial motivations and identify key criteria that make entrepreneurial opportunities attractive for them. Our findings indicate that academic makers are primarily motivated by the desire for learning, innovation, autonomy, and problem-solving. Market potential and social impact are key criteria in making an entrepreneurial opportunity attractive. The specific criteria vary among different characteristics of the makers. Makers with entrepreneurial experience put a higher value on market potential and avoid opportunities associated with technically challenging projects. In contrast, highly experienced makers prefer working independently and are often skeptical about opportunities associated with strong intellectual property rights protection. These findings have important implications for understanding academic makers as catalysts for university-based entrepreneurship and innovation, offering valuable insights for universities seeking to promote entrepreneurship through makerspaces.