Academic Research and Industrial Innovation: Interfirm Differences, Motivation for Successful Projects, and the Role of Consulting for Industry

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In the past decade, substantial progress has been made in investigating the extent to which technological innovations in various industries have been based on research the lags between, the academic research and their industrial use, and the characteristics of the universities and academic researchers that have tended to contribute significantly to industrial innovation. But many gaps still exist in our knowledge of this complex area. Specifically, far too little is known about (1) the reasons why the percentage of new products and processes based on recent academic research is so much higher in some firms than in others in the same industry (2) the extent to which academic researchers cited by industry for their contributions to industry's new products and processes were led to do the cited research by their own curiosity, by a known need, by an announced competition, by some combination of these factors, (3) the factors determining which colleges and universities firms will support to do R and D of various types, and (4) the extent, nature, and role of academic consulting for industry, which is unquestionably a major avenue by which university expertise is mobilized to help transfer information and know how to firms. The purpose of this research project is to shed new light on each of these important topics. Building on previous work in this area, data from firms in the chemical, information processing, electronics, instruments, pharmaceutical, metals, and petroleum industries; and from a large number of academic researchers who have been cited by firms in these industries as having made particularly significant contributions to their product and process innovations. Based on detailed data of this kind, statistical analyses are conducted, the findings of which should be useful to decision makers trying to increase the economic payoff from academic research in the United States.