Why do some academic entrepreneurs experience less role conflict? The impact of prior academic experience and prior entrepreneurial experience

Despite the growing interest in academic entrepreneurs’ role conflict, we have not gained sufficient insights into its antecedents. Based on social learning theory, we examine how academic entrepreneurs’ prior experience—prior academic experience and prior entrepreneurial experience—influence their role conflict. Through multilevel linear regression and robustness tests using data from 394 academic entrepreneurs, we show that prior academic experience positively impacts role conflict, while prior entrepreneurial experience negatively impacts role conflict. Moreover, the negative effect of academic experience is weaker for academic entrepreneurs who have a longer length of prior entrepreneurial experience. Our study contributes to the literature on the antecedents of academic entrepreneurs’ role conflict and has important practical implications for academic entrepreneurial project cultivation and selection.