Reassembling the social in entrepreneurial innovation and academic entrepreneurship studies: the "amphibious scientist" phenomenon

The chapter focuses on the phenomenon of the amphibious scientist in the context of the dynamics of entrepreneurial teams in high tech academic spin-offs. In particular, it aims at introducing the study of the processes of academic entrepreneurship in terms of translation of scientific, financial and commercial practices from the social contexts of life sciences into new organizational forms. The amphibious scientist phenomenon emerges from the comparison of the foundation of a spin-off with the results of previous research on the establishment of the organisational standard in the biotech sector. By applying the Actor-Network-Theory perspective, the chapter provides interesting insights in the literature of entrepreneurial innovation and academic entrepreneurship.