While the phenomenon of academic entrepreneurship has been explored in different higher education sectors, it has not been sufficiently investigated in the private for-profit 2-year sector of the education industry. The present study fills this gap by narrating the perspectives of twelve academic entrepreneurs who operate private for-profit schools through a collection of stories about their perceptions and experiences of academic entrepreneurship in this higher education sector. The philosophical perspective of constructivism informed the study. During semistructured interviews, twelve participants shared their stories about academic entrepreneurship. Thematic analysis of the transcripts led to an in-depth exploration of the for-profit 2-year colleges' institutional culture and identification of the entrepreneurial practices. The study revealed the themes of "service-oriented" and "metric-oriented" entrepreneurial institutional environment of for-profit 2-year colleges. This environment embraces academic innovations and forces colleges to engage in entrepreneurial activities by taking risks "out of necessity" to survive, and allocating resources based on student needs. The study contributed to understanding of for-profit 2-year colleges based on interviews of twelve academic leaders from this sector of higher education. [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://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]