A grounded theory study for digital academic entrepreneurship Korinzia Toniolo, Eleonora Masiero, Maurizio Massaro and Carlo Bagnoli Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy Abstract Purpose – This research aims to investigate how digital academic entrepreneurship (AE) develops, exploring its evolution from a micro to a macro perspective and highlighting the role of intellectual capital along the process. This paper contributes to the Special Issue on digital AE, providing research and practical implications. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts a grounded theory approach which allows exploring the “How” question of digital AE. It focuses on the case of “Strategy Innovation,” the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy) spin-off. Findings – Digital AE develops and regenerates through a virtuous cycle that, while supported by digital technologies, starts from single individuals and their networks, reaches a broader ecosystem, and ends once back to individuals. This study offers insights about the social impact of academic venturing activities and provides practitioners with useful insights for the understanding of academic spin-offs activities and related opportunities. Research limitations/implications – This study focuses on the specific research context of “Strategy Innovation,” Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy) spin-off. Future research should address in-depth analyses in the exploration of how digital AE emerges and evolves in different contexts and forms. Originality/value – This study investigates digital AE’s development over time, broadly illustrating the phenomenon from a micro to a macro perspective and presenting an explicative and analytical model. Keywords Digital academic entrepreneurship, Academic spin-off, University, Grounded theory, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Strategy Innovation Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction In order to contribute to the Special Issue on digital academic entrepreneurship (AE), the present study adopts a grounded theory approach, aiming to answer the “How” question, which moves from Siegel and Wright’s (2015) conceptualization of AE. The fast acceleration of digital technologies in the last ten years pervaded every private and public organization (Nambisan, 2017). In this context, the role of universities as knowledge and technology transfer actors is fundamental, to foster digitalization and innovation in the business ecosystem and in the society. This aim is accomplished through academic venturing activities, able to leverage digital technologies, to create new services and products from academic research results and to contribute to the shift of the traditional way of doing business in the digital era. Previous studies investigate the topic of AE both from a macro- and a micro-level perspective. While the former focused on the institutional level, the latter explored the individual characteristics related to the AE. In this regard, seminal studies exploring the macro-level perspective are those of Lockett and Wright (2005), Lombardi et al. (2019), Rasmussen et al. (2015), and Secundo et al. (2018). Similarly, concerning the micro-level perspective, relevant studies are those of Alexander et al. (2015), Balven et al. (2018), Jain et al. (2009), Lam (2011), and Perkmann et al. (2013). Despite these seminal studies, Siegel and Wright (2015) highlighted, on the one side, the paucity of papers investigating the AE subject, and, on the other, the need for more holistic explorations of the topic. To fill this gap, our research Grounded theory study of digital AE The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1355-2554.htm Received 29 June 2019 Revised 25 October 2019 Accepted 23 December 2019 International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research © Emerald Publishing Limited 1355-2554 DOI 10.1108/IJEBR-06-2019-0402