In spite of the extensive research on universities' entrepreneurship, whether research strength fosters or dampens their entrepreneurial performance remains controversial. Much research claims an influential role of research universities in regional economy, however, little has been said about what a part that the agglomeration economies may play in universities' entrepreneurial involvement. This study seeks to ravel out some of the controversies concerning the variation among those with above-average entrepreneurial output. It adds regional factors into the conventional function which focuses on university-specific characteristics. Entrepreneurial performance is indicated with counts of patent grants, research strength measured by rankings of the top-10 doctoral research programs in NRC report 2010, regional capacity approximated by establishments and employment of NAICS 54171, scale and level of GDP and counts of industrial research laboratories in the metropolitan statistical areas where the universities are located. Both OLS regression and path analysis are applied to assess hypothesized direct and indirect relationships between the contributing factors and university entrepreneurial output. The analysis starts with a cross-sectional design to capture a snapshot of the prime relationships and proceeds with a longitudinal analysis to check the consistency of findings and to come close to an understanding of causal connections. With the highly consistent findings regarding the roles of research strength and funding, as well as the detected direct and indirect impact of regional capacity, this study argues that research strength is a crucial factor which boosts universities' entrepreneurial performance. Research funding is an essential element which contributes to both research quality and entrepreneurial output. Regional capacity appears to directly promote universities' entrepreneurial performance in the agricultural, biological and health (ABH) sciences, and indirectly contribute to that in engineering, physical and mathematical (EPM) sciences via its positive effect on research strength. However, no significant evidence is found for a feedback effect of universities' entrepreneurial activities on regional economy or on the contagion effect among the universities. The nature of schools appears to produce variation in diversified ways. Medical schools further research strength in the ABH sciences, but it does not lead to chemical and biological (C&B) patenting. Universities with strong medical schools tend to be associated with lower research strength and less patenting output in the EPM sciences. Ivy League institutions display research strength in all scientific fields, which contributes indirectly to overall patenting and electrical and mechanical (E&M) patents. Land-grant schools have high research strength in the ABH sciences and in overall research quality, which indirectly promotes overall entrepreneurial output. Public institutions are more likely to be associated with high production of E&M patents than other types of universities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]