Exploring the role of entrepreneurial passion for facilitating university technology commercialization: Insights from battery research as an interdisciplinary field

Abstract University-industry technology commercialization (UTC) from interdisciplinary environments is promising to contribute to solutions for major socio-economic challenges. However, UTC requires considerable coordination and mediation effort and thus intrinsic motivation from the involved researchers. Thus, the objective of the present study is to explore entrepreneurial passion as a means to facilitate researchers’ intrinsic motivation for UTC activities. The interdisciplinary field of battery research is used as a representative environment for the expert interview study. Drawing on qualitative content analysis, a framework is developed, which links researchers’ intrinsic motivation to respective UTC activities, resulting in three distinct UTC-promoting roles. Implications for policy makers seeking to promote UTC, for research managers responsible for the implementation of transfer projects as well as actors from industry who have an interest in collaborative R&D with public research institutions are provided.