If Star Scientists do not patent: The Effect of Productivity, Basicness and Impact on The Decision to Patent in the Academic World *Mario Calderini, *Chiara Franzoni e **Andrea Vezzulli *DISPEA, Politecnico di Torino, Turin **CESPRI, Università Commerciale L. Bocconi, Milan
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If Star Scientists do not patent: The Effect of Productivity, Basicness and Impact on The Decision to Patent in the Academic World *Mario Calderini, *Chiara.
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If Star Scientists do not patent:
The Effect of Productivity, Basicness and Impact on The
Decision to Patent in the Academic World
*Mario Calderini, *Chiara Franzoni e **Andrea Vezzulli*DISPEA, Politecnico di Torino, Turin**CESPRI, Università Commerciale L. Bocconi, Milan
Academic Patenting. Rivalry vs. Complementarity Hp
RIVALRY• the pursuit of market goals may favor a re-arrangement of academic
research agendas in favor of short-term exploitable trajectories of research
• the rules of market competition may not be compatible with the social norms of priority and free circulation of knowledge (Dasgupta and David, 1985; Heller and Eisenberg, 1998)
COMPLEMENTARITY• feedback from industrial work may be so rich to enable advances in
knowledge or raise new quests for fundamental inquires (Rosemberg, 1982; Mansfield, 1995)
• Pasteur’s Quadrant: in some areas considerations of use and fundamental understanding can be pursued at the same time (Stokes, 1997)
Empirical Evidence
• CROSS-SECTION: most productive scientists in terms of publications are also more productive in terms of patents (Agrawal and Henderson, 2002; Stephan et al., 2007; Van Looy et al., 2004; Carayol, 2007)
• LONGITUDINAL: academic inventors are likely to experience a (temporary) increase in number of articles published in coincidence with the patent event (Azoulay et al., 2006; Breschi et al., 2007). patents are preceded by a flurry of publications (Azoulay et al., 2007), although propensity might be decrease for stars (Calderini et al., 2007).
• FIELDS: Life Sciences, Computer Sciences, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry
OPEN ISSUES: Quality? How about ENGINEERING vs. SCIENCE?
Sample and Data
SAMPLE• Names of 1323 Italian publicly-funded scientists in 2001• Material Sciences
DATA• Longitudinal data on all publications (ISI) and patents • (EPO/USPTO) made by each scientist from the age of 23 • 1970 – 2001• 20,856 scientific papers published • 941 journals: Impact Factor (JCR) and Level
(Chi/research report)• 305 patents assigned to academic inventors
Politecnico di Torino
# Inventors and # Patents per type of assignee
(1) (2)
Assignee type # Inventors with at least one patent in the category
# Patents (1)
# Inventors with patents only in the category
# Patents (2)
Inventor 9 9 6 6
research institution 24 36 13 19
Firm 106 252 95 219
research institution & f irm 4 5 4 5
inventor & f irm 1 1 1 1
Grand Total 131 303 119 250
• 83–87% patents (accounting for 80-81% inventors) was assigned to a firm (academic privilege)• “serial inventors”
Politecnico di Torino
• PRODUCTIVITY: 3-years moving average of the number of articles published by each individual
• BASICNESS: 3-years moving average of the rank (Level) of the journals where the individual published
• IMPACT: 3-years moving average of the Impact Factor of the journals where the individual published
Variables: Productivity, Basicness, Impact
10
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Pit
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articles
level
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lti
Pit
pitp
articles
factorimpact
0)1(
1
_
Politecnico di Torino
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
years of career
Pro
du
cti
vit
y
mean st.dev median
10
)(
L
articlesL
lltiPRODUCTIVITY: 3-years moving average of the
number of articles published by each individual
Politecnico di Torino
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
years of career
Basic
ness
mean st.dev median
BASICNESS: 3-years moving average of the rank (Level) of the journals where the individual published
L
lti
Pit
pitp
articles
level
0)1(
1
Politecnico di Torino
IMPACT: 3-years moving average of the Impact Factor of the journals where the individual published
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
years of career
Imp
act
mean st.dev median
L
lti
Pit
pitp
articles
factorimpact
0)1(
1
_
Politecnico di Torino
Model estimate
Proportional Hazard assumption (hp: all individuals have identical shape of hazard).
Estimate by Partial Likelihood method (Cox, 1972), which avoids imposing a specific distribution for T (baseline cancels out).
)exp(
)exp(
))(exp()(
))(exp()(
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0
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))(exp()()( 0 txtt ii
Politecnico di Torino
Results: all publication indicators have a curvilinear effect on the probability of experiencing an event
Dep. Variable Coeff. St. Error Coeff. St. Error Coeff. St. Error Coeff. St. Error Coeff. St. Error Coeff. St. Error
. Male gender: +140% hazard, but not significant for restricted event of patenting with a firm.
. No time/cohort effect: probability to patent has not changed over time.
. Experience of TTOs increases the hazard to patent.
. Probability to patent is higher in low-industry environments.
. Probability to patent with firms decreases with the size of institutions.
. Estimates on the restricted event to patent with a firm confirm all curvilinear effects.
Politecnico di Torino
Restricted event to patent with a firm: all curvilinear effects hold
Indep var: i (t) (106 failures)
productivity 0.264 (0.099) ***
productivity^2 - 0.022 (0.010) **
basicness 1.070 (0.271) ***
basicness^2 - 0.248 (0.069) ***
impact 0.400 (0.186) **
impact^2 - 0.060 (0.043)
Politecnico di Torino
Restricted event to patent with a firm.All results hold. Effects increse in magnitudo.
Indep var: i (t) (106 failures)
Productivity (+53%) 0.427 (0.146) ***
basicness (+20%) 0.181 (0.077) **
prod X basicness (-12%) - 0.131 (0.048) ***
productivity (+20%) 0.184 (0.071) **
Impact (+23%) 0.209 (0.076) ***
prod x impact (-8%) - 0.086 (0.034) **
Politecnico di Torino
Conclusions
. Performances of scientists are a strong predictor of the likelihood to patent.
. All bibliometric indicators had a curvilinear effect: are there different career trajectories?
i) low to medium levels of the indicators: any increase in performances increases the probability to patent: (e.g. higher productivity=more results to exploit; higher impact=higher reputation&visibility; higher level=more pervasive results)
ii) high levels of the indicators: any increase in performances decreases the probability to patent:(e.g. higher productivity, higher impact, higher basicness= more funds for untargeted research)
Strength of those effects may depend on: national system of research funding, technological regimes, type of firms in the region.
Politecnico di Torino
Discipline counts? Research Hypothesis
• not all disciplines earn equal benefits from serving practical ends.
• Whereas science is aimed at the understanding of phenomena, engineering is applied in scope, i.e. aims to solve problems of industrial (practical) relevance, although by means of a rigorous scientific method (see Walter G. Vincenti, 1990).
• NB: Here “applied” is used in its epistemological, rather than hierarchical meaning. Investigation is scoped to problems, but the process of knowledge creation may not necessarily be deductive (from basic disciplines), as the conventional wisdom suggests.
• HP: working on practical problems such as those posed by inventing a new functional tool can be in principle more fertile of ideas for engineering than for science.
Dataset: Patents
• 83–87% patents (80% inventors) was assigned to a firm •“serial inventors”
• Kruskal-Wallis Test confirms equality of populations for total patents invented in the overall observation period