Academic training is the initial step for junior scientists to learn to develop into independent scientists. This study investigates how supervisors decide to employ different approaches of early-career research training, and how these approaches influence the degree of trainees' independence in their later careers. Drawing on survey and bibliometric data of life scientists in Japanese universities, this study presents the following findings. First, if scientists are allowed higher autonomy in upstream research functions in early-career training, they later tend to attain greater organizational independence with higher organizational ranks. Second, if scientists are encouraged to deviate from conventional research topics during early-career training, they later tend to achieve greater cognitive independence by producing original research output. Third, the differences in the training approaches chosen by individual supervisors are influenced by the training that they had received in their early-career training. Overall, the study suggests that training approaches and independence of scientists are socialized in the local training context and passed down from one generation to the next.

The establishment of university spin-offs differs across schools as a result of the interactions among different intuitional settings. This study examines the role of institutional factors in the context of state-controlled universities, which are the majority in East Asia, but have not been the focus of the existing literature. The University of Tokyo experienced a significant shift from an anti-industry university collaboration culture to a leading entrepreneurial university in the mid-2000s. This study proposes a chronological investigation of the policies and culture of this state-owned top research university and addresses its significant efforts to create an entrepreneurial environment. First, despite the regulatory constraints, the university has established an incubator and early-stage investment resource, benefiting from prior experimental experiences in an independent research centre. Second, it opened a special non-degree entrepreneurship education programme for students and postdoctoral researchers. These facts show the importance of an organisational initiative even in a state-controlled context. Regarding the reasons why such changes did not cause internal cultural conflict, our case studies suggest that the academic and commercial bicultural system introduced by the University of Tokyo balanced the fulfilment of traditional academic roles with the drive for innovation.

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