Industry Funding of University Research and Scientific Productivity
Industry Funding of University Research and Scientific Productivity
复制标题
DOI：
10.1111/j.1467-6435.2011.00519.x
复制
发表时间：
2011-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Thorwarth, Susanne
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hottenrott, Hanna;Thorwarth, Susanne
大学研究人员为工业界进行的研究是知识和技术从科学界转移到私营部门的主要渠道之一。由于这种投入对企业创新绩效的价值被认为是相当大的，因此企业越来越多地寻求直接获得大学知识也就不足为奇了。特别是，在大多数经合组织国家，工业界对大学研究的资助一直在增加，但这一发展引发了对科学产出可能产生的长期影响的担忧。虽然一些政策制定者认为，大学的潜力，以促进和加速产业创新尚未得到充分利用，其他人担心的学术分心，从他们的实际研究使命。我们的研究结果显示，在科学和工程学教授在德国的样本，从工业界的预算份额较高，减少了教授的出版产出在数量和质量方面，在随后的几年。这一发现支持了德国理工科教师的“倾斜问题”假说。如果科学家通过出版物分享信息是积累知识生产的基础，从而是科学进步的基础，那么减少出版物的行业资助可能会对科学发展产生不利影响。另一方面，我们发现，如果以专利引用来衡量，行业资助对应用研究的质量有积极的影响。因此，行业资助可以通过提高更多应用研究的影响和质量而产生有益的影响。如果工业界资助的研究成果成功地获得专利和工业相关技术，它可能创造经济和社会价值。
Research conducted by university researchers for industry constitutes one of the main channels through which knowledge and technology are transferred from science to the private sector. Since the value of such inputs for the innovation performance of firms has been found to be considerable, it is not surprising that firms increasingly seek direct access to university knowledge. In particular, industry funding for university research has been increasing in most OECD countries.This development, however, spurred concerns regarding possible long-run effects on scientific output. While some policy makers argue that the potential of universities to foster and accelerate industrial innovations is not yet fully exploited, others are concerned with the distraction of academics from their actual research mission.Our results show for a sample of professors in science and engineering in Germany that a higher budget share from industry reduces publication output of professors both in terms of quantity and quality in subsequent years. This finding supports the "skewing problem" hypothesis for science and engineering faculty in Germany. If information sharing among scientists via publications is the basis for cumulative knowledge production and thus for scientific progress, industry funding that reduces publications may have detrimental effects on the development of science. On the other hand, we find that industry funding has a positive impact on the quality of applied research if measured by patent citations. Industry funding may thus have beneficial effects by improving impact and quality of more applied research. If industry funded research results in successfully patentable and industrially relevant technologies it may create economic as well as social value.