How certain are we about the social

How certain are we about the social mechanisms that may underlie the hypothesized relationships? On one hand, we know from the empirical literature on university-industry relations and from the controversies surrounding early commercialization efforts that in the formative years of biotechnology, academic entrepreneurship defied generally held assump-tions about appropriate professional conduct. The process of moving from a period of widespread opposition of this practice to one in which academic entrepreneurship has become commonplace clearly entailed a significant change of views within the profession. On the other hand, we know from research on the formation and development of technology based companies that access to resources is central to the entrepreneurial process. Scientists who lacked the ability to attract resources and lend status to their private-sector endeavors would not have progressed far along the path toward entrepreneurship.