Abstract

This chapter examines how the national science system as an institutional context influences role identity modification of science-based entrepreneurs. This is done by analysing biographical interviews with science-based entrepreneurs in two very different contexts: Finland and Russia. The results suggest, first, that the increasing entrepreneurial orientation of the academic world has resulted in the emergence of a new identity, that of the ‘scientrepreneur’. The strategies employed to manage this new role identity aim to bridge its scientific and entrepreneurial dimensions rather than to reconcile the discrepancies between two separate identities. Second, we propose that the speed and character of this evolution might be influenced by the institutional context. In Russia, the transition from socialism to a market economy and the subsequent institutional crises in Russian science forced scientists to become entrepreneurs, which created a temporary tension between the scientific and entrepreneurial aspects of the hybrid role identity.