IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v63y2005i1d10.1007_s11192-005-0207-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inventive output of academic research: A comparison of two science systems

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Meyer

    (SPRU, University of Sussex, Freeman Centre)

  • Mariette Du Plessis

    (Steunpunt O&O Statistieken, K.U.Leuven)

  • Tania Tukeva

    (SYO - Finnish Institute for Enterprise Management)

  • Jann-Timour Utecht

    (SYO - Finnish Institute for Enterprise Management)

Abstract

Summary This paper compares the inventive output of two science systems in small European countries. More specifically, we examine patented inventions of Finnish and Flemish university researchers. The comparison includes inventive output as such and its concentration on organizations, inventors, and corporate owners as well as foreign assignations and the degree to which individual inventors have retained the ownership of the patents. While there are commonalities between the Finnish and Flemish systems in terms of patent concentration on key institutions and corporate assignees, there are also pronounced differences with respect to the ownership structure of academic patents, which was expected in light of the different intellectual property regulations. Our observations seem to suggest that the total inventive output of a research system is not a function of the prevailing intellectual property system but rather in correspondence to overall national inventiveness thereby pointing to more general (national, cultural) drivers of academic inventive activity. From a methodological viewpoint, this research illustrates that tracing university-owned patents alone would leave considerable technological contributions of academics unidentified - also in countries where universities own the rights to their researchers’ patents. Another finding with potential methodological implications is that patents are highly concentrated on institutions. If such a distribution law applies to large countries as well, analysts could cover most of the national academic patent output by an intelligent selection of universities.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Meyer & Mariette Du Plessis & Tania Tukeva & Jann-Timour Utecht, 2005. "Inventive output of academic research: A comparison of two science systems," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 63(1), pages 145-161, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:63:y:2005:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-005-0207-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-005-0207-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-005-0207-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-005-0207-1?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Loet Leydesdorff & Martin Meyer, 2007. "The scientometrics of a Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations (Introduction to the topical issue)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 70(2), pages 207-222, February.
    2. Saveria Capellari & Domenico Stefano, 2014. "University-owned and university-invented patents: a network analysis on two Italian universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(2), pages 313-329, May.
    3. Baldini, Nicola, 2009. "Implementing Bayh-Dole-like laws: Faculty problems and their impact on university patenting activity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1217-1224, October.
    4. van Burg, Elco & Du, Jingshu & Kers, Jannigje Gerdien, 2021. "When do academics patent outside their university? An in-depth case study," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    5. Norrin Halilem & Nabil Amara & Réjean Landry, 2011. "Is the academic Ivory Tower becoming a managed structure? A nested analysis of the variance in activities of researchers from natural sciences and engineering in Canada," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 86(2), pages 431-448, February.
    6. Joaquín Azagra-Caro, 2014. "Determinants of national patent ownership by public research organisations and universities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(6), pages 898-914, December.
    7. Martin S. Meyer & Puay Tang, 2007. "Exploring the “value” of academic patents: IP management practices in UK universities and their implications for Third-Stream indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 70(2), pages 415-440, February.

    More about this item

    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:spr:scient:v:63:y:2005:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-005-0207-1. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.