Trajetórias de professores empreendedores da área de tecnologia da informação que geraram riqueza: estudo de casos em três universidades públicas federais brasileiras

Abstract

Academic entrepreneurship can be used to realize knowledge and technology transfer (KTT). In the literature, Academic Spin-offs creation (ASOs) is one of the most studied TCT channels in academic entrepreneurship. The use of different KTT channels, in addition to the creation of ASOs, can be a source of opportunities for the transfer of knowledge and innovation (from the university to society) with the generation of wealth. Although with a broad spectrum, research on academic entrepreneurship still has gaps in the literature to be explored. About academic entrepreneurship in Brazil, there is a lack of studies that explain more specifically how the professor at the federal public university of Brazil does to transfer knowledge and technology and to undertake. The incipient studies concerning the trajectory of successful entrepreneurial professors and the exploration of the use of different KTT channels in academic entrepreneurship for the generation of wealth are the main motivations of this Thesis. The general objective of this work is to identify the strategies mobilized during the life trajectory of innovation of entrepreneurial professors in the Information Technology (IT) area, who converted knowledge and scientific assets into wealth. To meet this objective, an adapted approach of retrospective roadmapping was implemented to map the trajectory of the life of innovation of six professors from three federal public universities of Brazil, in the IT area. Data collection and qualitative analysis using roadmapping and roadmap adapted by the author was useful to elucidate the main strategies mobilized by entrepreneurial professors and understand how they undertook and transferred knowledge and technology. 136 strategies mobilized by professors were identified, using different channels for KTT. These strategies resulted in a creation and distribution of value, with considerable wealth. The results showed that there is no pattern in the entrepreneurship and innovation trajectory of the case professors, although there are several strategies that are common to the cases. One of them was the starting point and sustaining the life of innovation of entrepreneurial professors, training qualified labor at the university, based on intensive research in knowledge seeking to solve real market problems. Evidence showed the existence of determinants for academic entrepreneurship, namely: institutional; individual; access to management knowledge; and access to resources (human, physical, financial, social, and technological). The author in this work proposes a preliminary version of the KTTRM (Knowledge and Technology Transfer Roadmapping) conceptual framework created for KTT in universities, in the IT area. The KTTRM was developed considering the analyses and results of this work and the professors' suggestions who participated in a face-to-face meeting at the University of Cambridge, where the author presented her thesis research proposal and the adaptation of roadmapping and roadmap. KTTRM has the potential to broaden the perspectives for TCT in Brazilian federal public universities for the generation of wealth (tangible and intangible).