Commercializing science: Is there a university 'brain drain' from academic entrepreneurship?
Abstract
When academic researchers participate in commercialization using for-profit firms, there is a potentially costly trade-off—their time and effort are diverted away from academic knowledge production. This is a form of brain drain on the not-for-profit research sector that may reduce knowledge accumulation and adversely impact long-run economic growth. In this paper, we examine the economic significance of the brain drain phenomenon using scientist-level panel data. We identify life scientists who start or join for-profit firms using information from the Small Business Innovation Research program and analyze the research performance of these scientists relative to a control group of randomly selected research peers. Combining our statistical results with data on the number of university spin-offs in the United States from 1994 to 2004, we find the academic brain drain has a nontrivial impact on knowledge production in the not-for-profit research sector.Download Info
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Paper provided by Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in its series Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven with number urn:hdl:123456789/264326.Length:
Date of creation: Sep 2010
Date of revision:
Publication status: Published in Management Science (2010-09) v.56, p.1599-1614
Handle: RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/264326
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Web page: http://www.kuleuven.be
Related research
Keywords: academic entrepreneurship; SBIR; NIH; Brain drain; research productivity; university mission;Other versions of this item:
- Andrew A. Toole & Dirk Czarnitzki, 2010. "Commercializing Science: Is There a University "Brain Drain" from Academic Entrepreneurship?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(9), pages 1599-1614, September.
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Czarnitzki, Dirk & Rammer, Christian & Toole, Andrew A., 2013.
"University spinoffs and the 'performance premium',"
ZEW Discussion Papers
13-004, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
- Czarnitzki, Dirk & Rammer, Christian & Toole, Andrew A., 2013. "University spinoffs and the "Performance Premium"," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/377375, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
- Hottenrott, Hanna & Thorwarth, Susanne, 2010.
"Industry funding of university research and scientific productivity,"
ZEW Discussion Papers
10-105, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
- Hottenrott, Hanna & Thorwarth, Susanne, 2011. "Industry funding of university research and scientific productivity," ZEW Discussion Papers 10-105 [rev.], ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
- Hottenrott, Hanna & Thorwarth, Susanne, 2011. "Industry funding of university research and scientific productivity," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/300789, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
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