IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jtecht/v40y2015i5p859-876.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of federal research funding on formation of university-firm biopharmaceutical alliances

Author

Listed:
  • Margaret Blume-Kohout
  • Krishna Kumar
  • Christopher Lau
  • Neeraj Sood

Abstract

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest funder of health and life science research in the United States. The research sponsored by the agency has continued to aid in the development of new biopharmaceutical therapies, many of which are commercialized via alliances between universities and biopharmaceutical firms. In this paper, we examine this commercialization pathway more closely, evaluating the effects of NIH research funding on US universities’ alliance formation. Based on results from instrumental variables models, we estimate that, on average, producing one additional university-firm alliance requires a sustained increase of $294 million in universities’ total NIH research funding over the preceding five-year period. In addition, a sustained increase in funding of $100 million over 5 years increases the probability of a university forming at least one alliance by 0.54, or 54 percentage points. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Margaret Blume-Kohout & Krishna Kumar & Christopher Lau & Neeraj Sood, 2015. "The effect of federal research funding on formation of university-firm biopharmaceutical alliances," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(5), pages 859-876, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jtecht:v:40:y:2015:i:5:p:859-876
    DOI: 10.1007/s10961-014-9374-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10961-014-9374-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10961-014-9374-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Payne A. Abigail & Siow Aloysius, 2003. "Does Federal Research Funding Increase University Research Output?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-24, May.
    2. Bozeman, Barry & Gaughan, Monica, 2007. "Impacts of grants and contracts on academic researchers' interactions with industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 694-707, June.
    3. Jeff S. Armstrong & Michael R. Darby & Lynne G. Zucker, 2003. "Commercializing knowledge: university science, knowledge capture and firm performance in biotechnology," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Sep, pages 149-170.
    4. Mansfield, Edwin, 1998. "Academic research and industrial innovation: An update of empirical findings1," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(7-8), pages 773-776, April.
    5. Mansfield, Edwin, 1991. "Academic research and industrial innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 1-12, February.
    6. Deepak Hegde, 2009. "Political Influence behind the Veil of Peer Review: An Analysis of Public Biomedical Research Funding in the United States," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(4), pages 665-690, November.
    7. Rebecca Henderson & Adam B. Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg, 1998. "Universities As A Source Of Commercial Technology: A Detailed Analysis Of University Patenting, 1965-1988," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(1), pages 119-127, February.
    8. Margaret E. Blume-Kohout & Krishna B. Kumar & Neeraj Sood, 2009. "Federal Life Sciences Funding and University R&D," NBER Working Papers 15146, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jacob, Brian A. & Lefgren, Lars, 2011. "The impact of research grant funding on scientific productivity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(9), pages 1168-1177.
    10. Jacob, Brian A. & Lefgren, Lars, 2011. "The impact of NIH postdoctoral training grants on scientific productivity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 864-874, July.
    11. Di Gregorio, Dante & Shane, Scott, 2003. "Why do some universities generate more start-ups than others?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 209-227, February.
    12. Guerzoni, Marco & Taylor Aldridge, T. & Audretsch, David B. & Desai, Sameeksha, 2014. "A new industry creation and originality: Insight from the funding sources of university patents," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 1697-1706.
    13. Albert N. Link & Donald S. Siegel & Barry Bozeman, 2007. "An empirical analysis of the propensity of academics to engage in informal university technology transfer ," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(4), pages 641-655, August.
    14. Toole, Andrew A., 2012. "The impact of public basic research on industrial innovation: Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 1-12.
    15. Stuart, Toby E. & Ozdemir, Salih Zeki & Ding, Waverly W., 2007. "Vertical alliance networks: The case of university-biotechnology-pharmaceutical alliance chains," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 477-498, May.
    16. Margaret E. Blume-Kohout, 2012. "Does Targeted, Disease‐Specific Public Research Funding Influence Pharmaceutical Innovation?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 641-660, June.
    17. A. Abigail Payne, 2003. "The Effects of Congressional Appropriation Committee Membership on the Distribution of Federal Research Funding to Universities," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 325-345, April.
    18. George, Gerard & Zahra, Shaker A. & Wood, D. Jr., 2002. "The effects of business-university alliances on innovative output and financial performance: a study of publicly traded biotechnology companies," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 577-609, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jason Coupet & Yuhao Ba, 2022. "Benchmarking university technology transfer performance with external research funding: a stochastic frontier analysis," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 605-620, April.
    2. Zhou Mo & Zhang Yujie & Lei Jiasu & Tan Xiaowen, 2022. "Early firm engagement, government research funding, and the privatization of public knowledge," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(8), pages 4797-4826, August.
    3. Rojas, Mariana Giovanna Andrade & Solis, Edgar Rogelio Ramirez & Zhu, John JianJun, 2018. "Innovation and network multiplexity: R&D and the concurrent effects of two collaboration networks in an emerging economy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 1111-1124.
    4. Byeongwoo Kang & Kazuyuki Motohashi, 2020. "Academic contribution to industrial innovation by funding type," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(1), pages 169-193, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Markus A. Kirchberger & Larissa Pohl, 2016. "Technology commercialization: a literature review of success factors and antecedents across different contexts," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(5), pages 1077-1112, October.
    2. Isabel Maria Bodas Freitas & Aldo Geuna & Federica Rossi, 2011. "University–Industry Interactions: The Unresolved Puzzle," Chapters, in: Cristiano Antonelli (ed.), Handbook on the Economic Complexity of Technological Change, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Tina C. Ambos & Kristiina Mäkelä & Julian Birkinshaw & Pablo D'Este, 2008. "When Does University Research Get Commercialized? Creating Ambidexterity in Research Institutions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(8), pages 1424-1447, December.
    4. Gersbach, Hans & Sorger, Gerhard & Amon, Christian, 2018. "Hierarchical growth: Basic and applied research," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 434-459.
    5. Raphaël Godefroy, 2010. "The birth of the congressional clinic," PSE Working Papers halshs-00564921, HAL.
    6. Park, Hyunwoo & Lee, Jeongsik (Jay) & Kim, Byung-Cheol, 2015. "Project selection in NIH: A natural experiment from ARRA," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1145-1159.
    7. Jong, Simcha & Slavova, Kremena, 2014. "When publications lead to products: The open science conundrum in new product development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 645-654.
    8. Jinyoung Kim & Sangjoon Lee & Gerald Marschke, 2014. "Impact of university scientists on innovations in nanotechnology," Chapters, in: Sanghoon Ahn & Bronwyn H. Hall & Keun Lee (ed.), Intellectual Property for Economic Development, chapter 6, pages 141-158, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Jing Xia & Wei Liu & Sang-Bing Tsai & Guodong Li & Chien-Chi Chu & Kai Wang, 2018. "A System Dynamics Framework for Academic Entrepreneurship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-25, July.
    10. David B. Audretsch & Dennis P. Leyden & Albert N. Link, 2013. "Universities as research partners in publicly supported entrepreneurial firms," Chapters, in: Public Support of Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms, chapter 12, pages 175-192, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Gersbach, Hans & Sorger, Gerhard & Amon, Christian, 2018. "Hierarchical growth: Basic and applied research," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 434-459.
    12. Beaudry, Catherine & Allaoui, Sedki, 2012. "Impact of public and private research funding on scientific production: The case of nanotechnology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1589-1606.
    13. Tartari, Valentina & Perkmann, Markus & Salter, Ammon, 2014. "In good company: The influence of peers on industry engagement by academic scientists," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1189-1203.
    14. Manuel Acosta & Daniel Coronado & M. Ángeles Martínez, 2018. "Does technological diversification spur university patenting?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 96-119, February.
    15. Xia, Yin & Yuan, Yiyong, 2005. "Privatization of Agricultural Biotechnology Research at U.S. Universities," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19276, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Sapsalis, Eleftherios & van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno & Navon, Ran, 2006. "Academic versus industry patenting: An in-depth analysis of what determines patent value," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1631-1645, December.
    17. Link, Al & Wessner, Charles, 2010. "Universities as Research Partners: Entrepreneurial Explorations and Exploitations," UNCG Economics Working Papers 10-12, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    18. Annita Nugent & Ho Fai Chan & Uwe Dulleck, 2022. "Government funding of university-industry collaboration: exploring the impact of targeted funding on university patent activity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(1), pages 29-73, January.
    19. Foray, Dominique & Lissoni, Francesco, 2010. "University Research and Public–Private Interaction," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 275-314, Elsevier.
    20. Perkmann, Markus & King, Zella & Pavelin, Stephen, 2011. "Engaging excellence? Effects of faculty quality on university engagement with industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 539-552, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    University-industry research partnerships; Academic-industrial collaboration; Federal research funding; O38; O31; L24; I23;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • L24 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Contracting Out; Joint Ventures
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jtecht:v:40:y:2015:i:5:p:859-876. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.