Sculpting an organisational field

Organisational fields in the aggregate constitute a recognized area of institutional life. In Turkey, Sabanci University (SU) has shaped the emerging organisational field of “technology-based academic entrepreneurship” significantly. SU has founded the second technology transfer office, Research and Graduate Policy Directorate (RGP), in Turkey. In essence, RGP acts as an interface between academic and the business world according the demands of the business world with the research of the academic world. However, RGP goes further and founds the first technology commercialisation company, Inovent, providing business view to researchers and help them get patents, found companies, and transfer their knowledge to business world. Furthermore, Golden Horn Ventures, second venture capital firm spins-out from Inovent. Subsequently, other universities started founding technology transfer offices and companies like Inovent. Overall, this paper is an explorative research, which will provide the detailed case of the shaping of an organisational field in a developing country by a dominant actor. In other words, the role of SU in creating technology-based academic entrepreneurship in Turkey.