5 th National Business and Management Conference Central Bicol State University of Agriculture November 17-18, 2017 1 Towards explaining academic entrepreneurship: A critical realist analysis of intellectual property commercialization at the University of San Carlos Lauro Silapan 1 and Benito Teehankee 2 1 University of San Carlos, 2 De La Salle University benito.teehankee@dlsu.edu.ph Abstract The purpose of the research was to investigate academic entrepreneurship and the possible causal mechanisms which enable the commercialization of a university-based intellectual property such as a manufacturing process. The paper employed a critical realist case study methodology on the creation of a joint-venture manufacturing company between a Catholic university in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines in partnership with external business entrepreneurs. Findings reveal the importance of a conducive environment produced by the institutional entrepreneurship of top university administration combined with the inventiveness and zeal of a faculty researcher in enabling successful invention commercialization. It is recommended that future research look in greater comparative detail at related mechanisms supportive of academic entrepreneurship. Key Words academic entrepreneurship; critical realism Background of the study Higher educational institutions have traditionally been called upon to fulfill a three- pronged mission: teaching, research and community extension. In the past few decades, however, an emerging role for universities, which may be considered an evolution of its community extension role, is the production and commercialization of intellectual products and innovations for the public interest. In the US, this development was partly fueled by the enactment of the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act, P.L. 96-517, more commonly known as the Bayh-Dole Act, in 1980 which encouraged the licensing of federally-funded university research to industry for socially beneficial purposes (Friedman & Silberman, 2003). Pilegaard, Moroz, & Neergaard (2010) defined academic entrepreneurship as: the involvement of academic scientists and organizations in commercially relevant activities in different forms, including industry-university collaborations, university- based venture funds, university-based incubator firms, startups by academics, and double appointments of faculty members in firms and academic departments. (p. 46)