Learning from one another? International policy “emulation” and university–industry technology transfer

Cross-border "emulation" of economic and technology policies among industrial-economy governments has become common in recent years, and spans policies ranging from intellectual property rights to collaborative R&D. Recent initiatives by a number of industrial-economy governments suggest considerable interest in emulating the Bayh--Dole Act of 1980, a piece of legislation that is widely credited with stimulating significant growth in university--industry technology transfer and research collaboration in the United States. I examine the effects of Bayh--Dole on university--industry collaboration and technology transfer in the United States, emphasizing the lengthy history of both activities prior to 1980 and noting the extent to which these activities are rooted in the incentives created by the unusual scale and structure (by comparison with Western Europe or Japan) of the US higher education system. Efforts at "emulation" of the Bayh--Dole policy by other governments are likely to have modest success at best without greater attention to the underlying structural differences among the higher education systems of these nations. Copyright 2011 The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.