Why do academics engage with industry? The entrepreneurial university and individual motivations

The debate on the entrepreneurial university has raised questions about what motivates academic scientists to engage with industry. This paper provides evidence based on survey data for a large sample of UK investigators in the physical and engineering sciences. The results suggest that most academics engage with industry to further their research rather than to commercialize their knowledge. However, there are differences in terms of the channels of engagement. Patenting and spin-off company formation are motivated exclusively by commercialization whilst joint research, contract research and consulting are strongly informed by research-related motives. We conclude that policy should refrain from overly focusing on monetary incentives for industry engagement and consider a broader range of incentives for promoting interaction between academia and industry.

[1]  Harriet Zuckerman,et al.  Age, aging, and age structure in science , 1968 .

[2]  J. Ravetz.  Sociology of Science , 1972, Nature.

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

[4]  David F. Noble,et al.  America by Design: Science, Technology, and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism by David F. Noble (review) , 1977 .

[5]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organizations , 1983 .

[6]  D. Gregori,et al.  Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics , 1984 .

[7]  D Blumenthal,et al.  University-industry research relationships in biotechnology: implications for the university. , 1986, Science.

[8]  Willard G. Manning,et al.  Monte Carlo evidence on the choice between sample selection and two-part models , 1987 .

[9]  Michael A. Stoto,et al.  Entrepreneurs in Academe: An Exploration of Behaviors Among Life Scientists , 1989 .

[10]  Irwin Feller,et al.  Universities as engines of R&D-based economic growth: They think they can , 1990 .

[11]  Edwin Mansfield,et al.  Academic research and industrial innovation , 1991 .

[12]  K. Pavitt.  What makes basic research economically useful , 1991 .

[13]  J. D. Roessner,et al.  What companies want from the federal labs , 1993 .

[14]  Paula E. Stephan,et al.  Striking the Mother Lode in Science: The Importance of Age, Place, and Time, , 1994 .

[15]  K. Tornquist,et al.  Out of the Ivory Tower: Characteristics of Institutions Meeting the Research Needs of Industry. , 1994 .

[16]  Andrea Piccaluga,et al.  A theoretical framework for the evaluation of university‐industry relationships , 1994 .

[17]  E. Mansfield.  Academic Research Underlying Industrial Innovations , 1995 .

[18]  Richard R. Nelson,et al.  On the Sources and Significance of Interindustry Differences in Technological Opportunities , 1995 .

[19]  L. Zucker,et al.  Star scientists and institutional transformation: patterns of invention and innovation in the formation of the biotechnology industry. , 1996, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[20]  Y. Lee,et al.  'TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER' AND THE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY : A SEARCH FOR THE BOUNDARIES OF UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION , 1996 .

[21]  W. Powell,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. , 1996 .

[22]  Larry L. Leslie,et al.  Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University , 1997 .

[23]  B. Clark.  Creating entrepreneurial universities : organizational pathways of transformation , 1998 .

[24]  H. Etzkowitz.  The norms of entrepreneurial science: cognitive effects of the new university-industry linkages , 1998 .

[25]  U. Schmoch,et al.  Science-based technologies: university-industry interactions in four fields , 1998 .

[26]  Scott J. Wallsten,et al.  Public-Private Technology Partnerships , 1999 .

[27]  David F. Channell.  Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation , 1999 .

[28]  Richard Florida,et al.  Engine or Infrastructure? The University Role in Economic Development , 1999 .

[29]  J. Ziman.  The Republic of Science: Its Political and Economic Theory , 2000 .

[30]  Y. Lee.  The Sustainability of University-Industry Research Collaboration: An Empirical Assessment , 2000 .

[31]  John T. Scott,et al.  Barriers Inhibiting Industry from Partnering with Universities: Evidence from the Advanced Technology Program , 2000 .

[32]  Eric P. Chiang,et al.  Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers , 2000 .

[33]  L. Leydesdorff,et al.  The dynamics of innovation: from National Systems and , 2000 .

[34]  Teresa R. Behrens,et al.  Unintended consequences of cooperative research: impact of industry sponsorship on climate for academic freedom and other graduate student outcome , 2001 .

[35]  Marie C. Thursby,et al.  Objectives, Characteristics and Outcomes of University Licensing: A Survey of Major U.S. Universities , 2001 .

[36]  Richard R. Nelson,et al.  Observations on the Post-Bayh-Dole Rise of Patenting at American Universities , 2001 .

[37]  Marie C. Thursby,et al.  Proofs and Prototypes for Sale: The Licensing of University Inventions , 2001 .

[38]  W. Powell,et al.  To Patent or Not: Faculty Decisions and Institutional Success at Technology Transfer , 2001 .

[39]  C. Scott,et al.  University-Industry Partnership , 2001, Science.

[40]  Walter W. Powell,et al.  Careers and contradictions: Faculty responses to the transformation of knowledge and its uses in the life sciences , 2001 .

[41]  Maryann Feldman,et al.  Special Issue on University Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer: Equity and the Technology Transfer Strategies of American Research Universities , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[42]  M. Fischer,et al.  Knowledge interactions between universities and industry in Austria: sectoral patterns and determinants , 2002 .

[43]  Fiona E. Murray.  Innovation as co-evolution of scientific and technological networks: exploring tissue engineering , 2002 .

[44]  Vasilis Zervos,et al.  Strategic research partnerships and economic performance: Empirical issues , 2002 .

[45]  Stephen P. Jenkins,et al.  Multivariate Probit Regression using Simulated Maximum Likelihood , 2003 .

[46]  Jason Owen-Smith,et al.  From separate systems to a hybrid order: accumulative advantage across public and private science at Research One universities , 2003 .

[47]  Frédéric Nlemvo,et al.  Toward a Typology of University Spin-offs , 2003 .

[48]  Nicolas Carayol,et al.  Objectives , Agreements and Matching in Science-Industry Collaborations : Reassembling the Pieces of the Puzzle , 2003 .

[49]  E. Zerhouni.  The NIH Roadmap , 2003, Science.

[50]  Albert N. Link,et al.  Universities as Research Partners , 2003 .

[51]  H. Etzkowitz.  Research groups as ???quasi-firms???: the invention of the entrepreneurial university , 2003 .

[52]  Mark A. Schankerman,et al.  Incentives and Invention in Universities , 2003 .

[53]  M. Wright,et al.  Science Parks and the Performance of New Technology-Based Firms: A Review of Recent U.K. Evidence and an Agenda for Future Research , 2003 .

[54]  B. Looy,et al.  Combining entrepreneurial and scientific performance in academia: towards a compounded and reciprocal Matthew-effect? , 2004 .

[55]  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 .

[56]  D. Mowery,et al.  The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and University–Industry Technology Transfer: A Model for Other OECD Governments? , 2004 .

[57]  R. Nelson.  The market economy, and the scientific commons , 2004 .

[58]  Scott Shane,et al.  Academic Entrepreneurship: University Spinoffs and Wealth Creation , 2004 .

[59]  Albert N. Link,et al.  Generating science-based growth: an econometric analysis of the impact of organizational incentives on university–industry technology transfer , 2005 .

[60]  Christopher Newfield.  Ivory Tower and Industrial Innovation: University-Industry Technology Before and After the Bayh-Dole Act (review) , 2005 .

[61]  Scott Shane,et al.  Economic development through entrepreneurship : government, university and business linkages , 2005 .

[62]  S. Shane.  Economic Development Through Entrepreneurship , 2005 .

[63]  Lisa A Bero,et al.  Attitudes of academic and clinical researchers toward financial ties in research: A systematic review , 2005, Science and engineering ethics.

[64]  David A. Kirby,et al.  Creating Entrepreneurial Universities in the UK: Applying Entrepreneurship Theory to Practice , 2006 .

[65]  Phillip H. Phan,et al.  The Effectiveness of University Technology Transfer , 2006 .

[66]  M. Feldman,et al.  Entpreprenerial Universities and Technology Transfer: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Knowledge-Based Economic Development , 2006 .

[67]  R. Lowe,et al.  Who Develops a University Invention? The Impact of Tacit Knowledge and Licensing Policies , 2006 .

[68]  S. Krimsky,et al.  Science in the private interest: has the lure of profits corrupted biomedical research? , 2006, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.

[69]  A. Geuna,et al.  University patenting and its effects on academic research: The emerging European evidence , 2006 .

[70]  F. Rothaermel,et al.  University entrepreneurship: a taxonomy of the literature , 2007 .

[71]  Wolfgang Glänzel,et al.  Heterogeneity of Patenting Activity and Its Implications for Scientific Research , 2007 .

[72]  Lee Woolgar,et al.  New institutional policies for university–industry links in Japan , 2007 .

[73]  A. Link,et al.  An Empirical Analysis of the Propensity of Academics to Engage In Informal University Technology Transfer , 2007 .

[74]  Rosa Grimaldi,et al.  To patent or not to patent? A survey of Italian inventors on motivations, incentives, and obstacles to university patenting , 2007, Scientometrics.

[75]  Pablo D'Este,et al.  University-industry linkages in the UK: What are the factors underlying the variety of interactions with industry? , 2007 .

[76]  Margarida Fontes,et al.  Do individual factors matter? A survey of scientists’ patenting in Portuguese public research organisations , 2007, Scientometrics.

[77]  Daniel Lee Kleinman,et al.  Contradiction, convergence and the knowledge economy: the confluence of academic and commercial biotechnology , 2007 .

[78]  Réjean Landry,et al.  “The Triple-Helix collaboration: Why do researchers collaborate with industry and the government? What are the factors that influence the perceived barriers?” , 2007, Scientometrics.

[79]  Mike Wright,et al.  The rise of entrepreneurial activity at universities: organizational and societal implications , 2007 .

[80]  Nicola Baldini,et al.  Negative effects of university patenting: Myths and grounded evidence , 2008, Scientometrics.

[81]  M. Perkmann,et al.  University Industry Relationships and Open Innovation: Towards a Research Agenda , 2007 .

[82]  R. L. Jensen,et al.  Effects on academia-industry collaboration of extending university property rights , 2007 .

[83]  Magnus Gulbrandsen,et al.  The Third Mission and the Entrepreneurial University Model , 2007 .

[84]  Martin Meyer,et al.  Becoming an entrepreneurial university? A case study of knowledge exchange relationships and faculty attitudes in a medium-sized, research-oriented university , 2008 .

[85]  Maryann Feldman,et al.  Academic Entrepreneurs: Organizational Change at the Individual Level , 2008, Organ. Sci..

[86]  Markus Perkmann,et al.  Engaging the Scholar: Three Types of Academic Consulting and Their Impact on Universities and Industry , 2008 .

[87]  Branco Ponomariov,et al.  Effects of university characteristics on scientists’ interactions with the private sector: an exploratory assessment , 2008 .

[88]  Julian Birkinshaw,et al.  When Does University Research Get Commercialized? Creating Ambidexterity in Research Institutions , 2008 .

[89]  Rebecca Henderson,et al.  Reprinted Article Putting patents in context: Exploring knowledge transfer from MIT , 2009 .

[90]  Ajay Agrawal,et al.  Have university knowledge flows narrowed?: Evidence from patent data , 2009 .

[91]  M. Perkmann,et al.  The Two Faces of Collaboration: Impacts of University-Industry Relations on Public Research , 2009 .

[92]  Gerard George,et al.  Academics or entrepreneurs? Investigating role identity modification of university scientists involved in commercialization activity , 2009 .

[93]  Christoph Grimpe,et al.  Informal university technology transfer: a comparison between the United States and Germany , 2010 .

[94]  Maureen McKelvey,et al.  Learning to Compete in European Universities: From Social Institution to Knowledge Business , 2010 .

[95]  Devrim Göktepe-Hultén,et al.  Inventing and patenting activities of scientists: in the expectation of money or reputation? , 2010 .