Entrepreneurship Characteristics and Attitude towards Knowledge Commercialization: Evidence from Malaysia

Recently, universities have contributed to the economy of the nation through the central role of research in commercialization and economic development, as well as through traditional teaching and research roles. However, universities must provide an environment for teachers to carry out successful business activities involving technology transfer. The literature shows that there is limited attention in exploring the business characteristics necessary to improve the commercialization of university research teachers. Therefore, to fill this gap, current research seeks to explore the relationship between the business characteristics of university research scholars and the attitude of knowledge marketing. A random sample of 94 teachers from the University of Technology Malaysia were surveyed to determine the relationship between business characteristics (i.e. Self-Confidence, Tolerance of Ambiguity and Uncertainty, Creativity, Self-reliance and the ability to adapt, Opportunity Recognition, Innovativeness and Motivation to Excel). The research results show that leadership and self-confidence are the most important characteristics to increase commercialization. The study found that all these characteristics correlate positively with the commercial attitude of teachers. Therefore, the researcher suggests that university management should improve the business characteristics of teachers to increase the commercialization of research activities.