IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/scippl/v49y2022i6p972-978..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An assessment of the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program: A study of project failure
[On the Failure of Scientific Research: An Analysis of SBIR Projects Funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health]

Author

Listed:
  • Albert N Link
  • Christopher A Swann
  • Martijn van Hasselt

Abstract

In 2000 and 2012, the US Congress charged the National Research Council (NRC) to study how the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program had stimulated technological innovation and used small businesses to meet Federal research and development needs and to recommend program improvements. Using project data collected by the NRC, we suggest that an important assessment metric not previously considered by the NRC in its reports to Congress relates to the failure rate of funded Phase II research projects. We identify a number of covariates associated with project failure, and we recommend that program managers might decrease the likelihood of project failure if funded firms can be given relevant information about how to contact angel investors, venture capitalists, private investors, and the like, and how to present a proposal for additional research investment dollars. Our findings should have a direct benefit to other countries that have implemented SBIR-like programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Albert N Link & Christopher A Swann & Martijn van Hasselt, 2022. "An assessment of the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program: A study of project failure [On the Failure of Scientific Research: An Analysis of SBIR Projects Funded by the U.S. Nationa," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(6), pages 972-978.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:scippl:v:49:y:2022:i:6:p:972-978.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/scipol/scac049
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Link, Albert N., 2015. "Capturing Knowledge: Private Gains and Public Gains from University Research Partnerships," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 11(3), pages 139-206, November.
    2. Link, Albert N. & Scott, John T., 2011. "Public Goods, Public Gains: Calculating the Social Benefits of Public R&D," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199729685.
    3. Irwin Feller, 2022. "Assessing the societal impact of publicly funded research," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 632-650, June.
    4. Jeremy W. Bray & Albert N. Link, 2017. "Dynamic entrepreneurship: On the performance of U.S. research joint ventures," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 785-797, December.
    5. Martin S. Andersen & Jeremy W. Bray & Albert N. Link, 2017. "On the failure of scientific research: an analysis of SBIR projects funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 431-442, July.
    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. Nienow, Sara & Leonchuk, Olena & O'Connor, Alan & Link, Albert, 2023. "Bringing Technology to Market: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute SBIR Phase IIB Projects," UNCG Economics Working Papers 23-7, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    2. Sergio Salles-Filho & Bruno Fischer & Yohanna Juk & Paulo Feitosa & Fernando A. B. Colugnati, 2023. "Acknowledging diversity in knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship: assessing the Brazilian small business innovation research," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1446-1465, August.
    3. David B. Audretsch & Maksim Belitski & Rosa Caiazza & Farzana Chowdhury & Matthias Menter, 2023. "Entrepreneurial growth, value creation and new technologies," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 1535-1551, October.

    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. David B. Audretsch & Albert N. Link, 2019. "Embracing an entrepreneurial ecosystem: an analysis of the governance of research joint ventures," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 429-436, February.
    2. Michael J. Hall & Albert N. Link & Matthew Schaffer, 2022. "An economic analysis of standard reference materials," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 1847-1860, December.
    3. Alan C. O'Connor & Albert N. Link & Brandon M. Downs & Laura M. Hillier, 2015. "The impact of public investment in medical imaging technology: an interagency collaboration in evaluation," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 510-531, July.
    4. Guerrero, Maribel & Link, Albert & van Hasselt, Martijn, 2023. "The Transfer of Federally Funded Technology: A Study of Small, Entrepreneurial, and Ambidextrous Firms," UNCG Economics Working Papers 23-3, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    5. Stuart D. Allen & Stephen K. Layson & Albert N. Link, 2013. "Public gains from entrepreneurial research: Inferences about the economic value of public support of the Small Business Innovation Research program," Chapters, in: Public Support of Innovation in Entrepreneurial Firms, chapter 6, pages 105-112, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. David B. Audretsch & Albert N. Link & Martijn Hasselt, 2019. "Knowledge begets knowledge: university knowledge spillovers and the output of scientific papers from U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(3), pages 1367-1383, December.
    7. Rajeev K. Goel & Devrim Göktepe-Hultén, 2021. "Innovation by foreign researchers: relative influences of internal versus external human capital," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 258-276, February.
    8. Siegel, Donald & Bogers, Marcel L.A.M. & Jennings, P. Devereaux & Xue, Lan, 2023. "Technology transfer from national/federal labs and public research institutes: Managerial and policy implications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    9. Link, Albert, 2022. "An Assessment and Evaluation of the U.S. Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program," UNCG Economics Working Papers 22-8, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    10. Martin S. Andersen & Jeremy W. Bray & Albert N. Link, 2017. "On the failure of scientific research: an analysis of SBIR projects funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 431-442, July.
    11. Albert N. Link & John T. Scott, 2012. "On the social value of quality: An economic evaluation of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 39(5), pages 680-689, July.
    12. Nienow, Sara & Leonchuk, Olena & O'Connor, Alan & Link, Albert, 2023. "Bringing Technology to Market: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute SBIR Phase IIB Projects," UNCG Economics Working Papers 23-7, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    13. Link, Albert & Scott, John, 2017. "Toward an Assessment of the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program at the National Institutes of Health," UNCG Economics Working Papers 17-6, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics.
    14. Farhat Chowdhury & Albert N. Link & Anne Beeson Royalty, 2023. "Gender and innovation at the US National Institutes of Health," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1543-1553, December.
    15. Albert N. Link & Martijn van Hasselt, 2022. "The use of intellectual property protection mechanisms by publicly supported firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1-2), pages 111-121, February.
    16. Albert N. Link & Martijn Hasselt, 2020. "Exploring the impact of R&D on patenting activity in small women-owned and minority-owned entrepreneurial firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1061-1066, April.
    17. Daniel Nepelski & Giuseppe Piroli, 2018. "Organizational diversity and innovation potential of EU-funded research projects," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 615-639, June.
    18. Mengyang Pan & Aravind Chandrasekaran & James Hill & Manus Rungtusanatham, 2022. "Multidisciplinary R&D project success in small firms: The role of multiproject status and project management experience," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(7), pages 2806-2821, July.
    19. Albert N. Link & John T. Scott, 2019. "The economic benefits of technology transfer from U.S. federal laboratories," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 1416-1426, October.
    20. Albert Link & Brent Rowe & Dallas Wood, 2011. "Information About Information: Public Investments in Information Retrieval Research," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 2(2), pages 192-200, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR); project failure; R&D; program assessment; program management; technology diffusion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O22 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Project Analysis
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    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:oup:scippl:v:49:y:2022:i:6:p:972-978.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/spp .

    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.