Doctoral dissertation research: Impact of academic entrepreneurship on doctoral student innovation

本项目考察了顾问创业活动对博士生创新产出的影响。创业企业被广泛认为是就业和经济增长的基本引擎。从事创业的个人来自各种背景，包括（而且越来越多）企业家。近年来，大学教授参与创业的人数激增，这有助于创建技术和知识密集型公司。创业活动的增加部分是因为大学在教师中促进创业精神。然而，随着大学和公共政策制定者加大对教职员工创办公司的激励力度，他们也应该仔细考虑大学教授所扮演的其他角色的影响。尽管在促进学术创业方面投入了时间和资源，但人们对教师参与创业的影响知之甚少，例如，创造公共知识和培训学生。本项目通过分析顾问参与创业对博士生创新成果的影响程度来研究后者，突出了从大学到私营企业的两种不同知识转移渠道之间的权衡。一种是通过创建大学衍生产品，另一种是通过学生体现。总的来说，这项研究提供了一个更好的了解教授的商业活动如何可能对学生的创新生产力和职业产生长期影响，从而最终影响发明活动的速度和方向。该项目使用了美国一所高排名研究型大学计算机科学与工程专业博士生和教授的丰富管理数据，以评估研究型大学教师向创业转型前后博士生创新和职业成果的变化。这些数据包括教授的国籍、性别、种族、年龄、工资、联邦资助、出版物的数量和质量等信息，以及他们的专利产出和他们创办的初创企业数量等信息。这些数据还得到根据受审查机构注册处提供的信息将教授与博士生配对的补充。对于博士生，数据包括国籍，年龄，入学和毕业年份，专业，GRE成绩，GPA，性别和种族，以前的学位授予机构，毕业前后的职业，以及出版物和专利记录等详细信息。本研究采用的实证方法是利用现有数据的丰富性，以解决潜在的偏见所引起的排序和创业活动的内隐。这项研究的结果增强了我们对教授的商业活动对他们所建议的博士生的创新产出和职业轨迹的潜在副作用的认识。因此，该项目在理解学术创业对大学和未来创新者的影响方面迈出了重要一步。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project examines the impact advisor entrepreneurial activities on the innovative output of doctoral students. Entrepreneurial ventures are widely considered a fundamental engine for employment and economic growth. Individuals who engage in entrepreneurship come from a variety of backgrounds, including (and increasingly) academe. The participation of university professors in entrepreneurship has experienced a surge in recent years, which has contributed to the creation of technology- and knowledge-intensive companies. This increase of entrepreneurial activity comes partially as a response to universities promoting entrepreneurship among the faculty. As universities and public policy makers increase the incentives for faculty members to start companies, they should, however, also carefully consider the implications for the other roles played by university professors. Despite the time and resources invested in promoting academic entrepreneurship, little is known about the implications of faculty engagement in entrepreneurship on, for example, creating public knowledge and training students. This project examines the latter by analyzing the extent to which an advisor's engagement in entrepreneurship impacts their doctoral students' innovative output, highlighting the trade-off between two different channels of knowledge transfer from universities to private firms. One is through the creation of university spinoffs, while the other is embodied by students. Overall, this research provides a better understanding of how professors' commercial activities may have long-lasting effects on their students' innovative productivity and careers, thereby ultimately influencing the rate and direction of inventive activity. This project uses rich administrative data on doctoral students and professors in computer science and engineering at a highly-ranked US research university, to assess variation in doctoral students' innovation and career outcomes, before and after research faculty transition into entrepreneurship. The data encompass information on professors' nationality, gender, ethnicity, age, salaries, federal funding, the number and quality of publications, as well as information on their patenting output and the number of startups they have established. These data are complemented by matching professors to their doctoral students, based on information provided by the Registrar's Office of the examined institution. For doctoral students, data includes detailed information on nationality, age, year of admission and graduation, major, GRE scores, GPAs, gender, and ethnicity, previous degree-granting institutions, careers before and after graduation, as well as publication, and patent records. The empirical approach applied to this study makes use of the richness of the available data to address potential biases induced by sorting and endogeneity of entrepreneurial activity. The findings of this study enhance our knowledge about the potential side-effects of professors' commercial activities on the innovative output and career trajectories of the doctoral students they advise. As such, this project takes an important step towards understanding the consequences of academic entrepreneurship for both universities and future innovators.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.