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Scholarship and inventive activity in the university: complements or substitutes?

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  • Brent Goldfarb
  • Gerald Marschke
  • Amy Smith

Abstract

Universities are engaging in more licensing and patenting activities than ever before, and the amount of research funded by industry is increasing. Academics' commercialization activities may inhibit traditional academic scholarship. If the output of such scholarship is an important input into technological innovation and economic growth, then such an inhibition would be cause for concern. We introduce new instruments and techniques and demonstrate them using a novel panel dataset of academic electrical engineers from Stanford University. We find no evidence that engaging in inventive activity reduces the quantity of scientific output and some evidence that it increases its quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Brent Goldfarb & Gerald Marschke & Amy Smith, 2009. "Scholarship and inventive activity in the university: complements or substitutes?," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(8), pages 743-756.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:18:y:2009:i:8:p:743-756
    DOI: 10.1080/10438590802479148
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hall, B. & Jaffe, A. & Trajtenberg, M., 2001. "The NBER Patent Citations Data File: Lessons, Insights and Methodological Tools," Papers 2001-29, Tel Aviv.
    2. Kira Fabrizio & Alberto Di Minin, 2004. "Commercializing the laboratory: the relationship between faculty patenting and publishing," Working Papers 200402, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa, Istituto di Management.
    3. Lee Branstetter & Yoshiaki Ogura, 2005. "Is Academic Science Driving a Surge in Industrial Innovation? Evidence from Patent Citations," NBER Working Papers 11561, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dirk Czarnitzki & Andrew Toole, 2010. "Is there a trade-off between academic research and faculty entrepreneurship? Evidence from US NIH supported biomedical researchers," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(5), pages 505-520.
    2. Jerry Thursby & Marie Thursby, 2010. "University Licensing: Harnessing or Tarnishing Faculty Research?," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 10, pages 159-189, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Wesley M. Cohen & Henry Sauermann & Paula Stephan, 2020. "Not in the Job Description: The Commercial Activities of Academic Scientists and Engineers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(9), pages 4108-4117, September.
    4. Ouellette, Lisa Larrimore & Tutt, Andrew, 2020. "How do patent incentives affect university researchers?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    5. Carlos Rosell & Ajay Agrawal, 2006. "University Patenting: Estimating the Diminishing Breadth of Knowledge Diffusion and Consumption," NBER Working Papers 12640, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Seokbeom Kwon & Kazuyuki Motohashi & Kenta Ikeuchi, 2022. "Chasing two hares at once? Effect of joint institutional change for promoting commercial use of university knowledge and scientific research," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 1242-1272, August.
    7. Albert Banal-Estañol & Inés Macho-Stadler & David Pérez-Castrillo, 2013. "Research Output From University–Industry Collaborative Projects," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 27(1), pages 71-81, February.
    8. Albert Banal-Estañol & Inés Macho-Stadler & David Pérez-Castrillo, 2011. "Research output from university-industry collaborative projects," Working Papers 2011/23, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    9. Nicola Lacetera, 2003. "Incentives and spillovers in R&D activities: an agency-theoretic analysis of industry-university relations," Microeconomics 0312004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Link, Albert N. & Swann, Christopher A. & Bozeman, Barry, 2008. "A time allocation study of university faculty," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 363-374, August.
    11. Fini, Riccardo & Lacetera, Nicola & Shane, Scott, 2010. "Inside or outside the IP system? Business creation in academia," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1060-1069, October.
    12. Rosell, Carlos & Agrawal, Ajay, 2009. "Have university knowledge flows narrowed?: Evidence from patent data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 1-13, February.
    13. Malwina Mejer, 2011. "Entrepreneurial Scientists and their Publication Performance. An Insight from Belgium," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2011-017, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    14. Daniel Ogachi & Lydia Bares & Zoltan Zeman, 2021. "Innovation and Scientific Research as a Sustainable Development Goal in Spanish Public Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-12, April.
    15. Cristiano Antonelli & Chiara Franzoni & Aldo Geuna, 2011. "The Contributions of Economics to a Science of Science Policy," Chapters, in: Massimo G. Colombo & Luca Grilli & Lucia Piscitello & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra (ed.), Science and Innovation Policy for the New Knowledge Economy, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Albert Banal-Estañol & Mireia Jofre-Bonet & Cornelia Meissner, 2008. "Theimpact of industry collaboration on research: Evidence from engineering academics in the UK," Economics Working Papers 1190, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Aug 2010.
    17. Banal-Estañol, Albert & Jofre-Bonet, Mireia & Lawson, Cornelia, 2015. "The double-edged sword of industry collaboration: Evidence from engineering academics in the UK," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1160-1175.
    18. Goldfarb, Brent, 2008. "The effect of government contracting on academic research: Does the source of funding affect scientific output," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 41-58, February.
    19. Albert Banal-Estañol & Inés Macho-Stadler & David Pérez-Castrillo, 2011. "Research Output from University-Industry Collaborative Projects," Working Papers 539, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
    20. René Carraz, 2013. "Academic patenting and the scientific enterprise: Lessons from a Japanese university," Working Papers of BETA 2013-12, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.

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