The impact of stereotypes about academic entrepreneurs on counterparts' negotiation strategies

Abstract

This study examines the stereotypes associated with academic entrepreneurs (AEs) and their business counterparts’ consequential negotiation strategies by presenting findings from two studies – one interview-based and the other experiment-based. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 10 AEs, the first study showed that AEs considered their affiliations’ academic reputation and industrial experience important in influencing their business counterparts’ perceptions toward them, which were characterized by two stereotype dimensions: warmth and competence. The second study developed and tested propositions derived from the qualitative data in an experiment using 192 small and medium-sized enterprise owners and managers as subjects. The results showed that AEs’ academic reputation and industry experience positively predicted their perceived status in the eyes of negotiation counterparts, which further increased warmth and competence perceptions. Furthermore, the negotiation counterparts used a competition strategy when they perceived AEs as warm and a cooperation strategy when they perceived AEs as competent.