THE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTIVITY OF ACADEMIC INVENTORS: NEW EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN DATA

We investigate the scientific productivity of Italian academic inventors, namely academic researchers designated as inventors on patent applications to the European Patent Office, 1978–1999. We use a novel longitudinal data set comprising 299 academic inventors, and we match them with an equal number of non-patenting researchers. We enquire whether a trade-off between publishing and patenting, or a trade-off between basic and applied research exists, on the basis of the number and quality of publications. We find no trace of such a trade-off, and find instead a strong and positive relationship between patenting and publishing, even in basic science. Our results suggest, however, that it is not patenting per se that boosts scientific productivity, but the advantage derived from solid links with industry, as the strongest correlation between publishing and patenting activity is found when patents are owned by business partners, rather than individual scientists or their universities.

[1]  M. Heller,et al.  Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons in Biomedical Research , 1998, Science.

[2]  J. S. Long,et al.  Interuniversity Mobility of Academic Scientists. , 1987 .

[3]  Rebecca Henderson,et al.  Special Issue on University Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer: Putting Patents in Context: Exploring Knowledge Transfer from MIT , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[4]  David C. Mowery,et al.  Ivory tower and industrial innovation : university-industry technology transfer before and after the Bayh-Dole Act in the United States , 2004 .

[5]  Magnus Henrekson,et al.  Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Policies Towards the Commercialization of University Intellectual Property , 2003 .

[6]  M. Schmiemann,et al.  New Approaches to Technology Transfer from Publicly Funded Research , 2003 .

[7]  E. Mansfield.  Academic research and industrial innovation: An update of empirical findings1 , 1998 .

[8]  Paula E. Stephan,et al.  WHO'S PATENTING IN THE UNIVERSITY? EVIDENCE FROM THE SURVEY OF DOCTORATE RECIPIENTS , 2007 .

[9]  Stefano Breschi,et al.  From Publishing to Patenting: do Productive Scientists Turn into Academic Inventors? , 2005 .

[10]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Inside the black box: How exogenous is science? , 1983 .

[11]  Marie C. Thursby,et al.  Shirking, Shelving and Sharing Risk: The Role of University License Contracts , 2004 .

[12]  S. Breschi,et al.  Networks of inventors and the role of academia: an exploration of Italian patent data , 2004 .

[13]  S. Hilgartner,et al.  Data withholding in academic genetics: evidence from a national survey. , 2002, JAMA.

[14]  R. Nelson.  The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research , 1959, Journal of Political Economy.

[15]  Alberto Di Minin,et al.  Commercializing the laboratory: the relationship between faculty patenting and publishing , 2004 .

[16]  Bronwyn H Hall.  Exploring the Patent Explosion , 2004, The Journal of Technology Transfer.

[17]  P. David,et al.  Toward a new economics of science , 1994 .

[18]  J. S. Long,et al.  Rank Advancement in Academic Careers: Sex Differences and the Effects of Productivity. , 1993 .

[19]  R. Merton.  The Normative Structure of Science , 1973 .

[20]  Norman Kaplan,et al.  The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations , 1974 .

[21]  A. Gelijns,et al.  Medical innovation and institutional interdependence: rethinking university-industry connections. , 2002, JAMA.

[22]  Scott Stern,et al.  Academic Science and Entrepreneurship: Dual Engines of Growth , 2007 .

[23]  L. H. Ehrle.  Partnerships between universities and industry. , 2002, JAMA.

[24]  C. Gross,et al.  Scope and impact of financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research: a systematic review. , 2003, JAMA.

[25]  Stefania Borghini,et al.  Ivory Tower vs Spanning University: il caso dell'Università di Pavia , 2003 .

[26]  A. Arora,et al.  Markets for Technology: The Economics of Innovation and Corporate Strategy , 2004 .

[27]  R. Kneller,et al.  Technology transfer: a review for biomedical researchers. , 2001, Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

[28]  J. S. Long,et al.  DEPARTMENTAL EFFECTS ON SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTIVITY , 1990 .