Commercializing Science: Is There a University Brain Drain from Academic Entrepreneurship?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Toole, Andrew A.; Czarnitzki, Dirk
• 署名单位: Rutgers University System; Rutgers University New Brunswick; Leibniz Association; Zentrum fur Europaische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW); KU Leuven; KU Leuven
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1100.1192
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 1599-1614
• 关键词: academic entrepreneurship; SBIR; nih; Brain drain; research productivity; university mission

摘要

When academic researchers participate in commercialization using for-profit firms, there is a potentially costly trade-off-their time and effort are diverted away from academic knowledge production. This is a form of brain drain on the not-for-profit research sector that may reduce knowledge accumulation and adversely impact long-run economic growth. In this paper, we examine the economic significance of the brain drain phenomenon using scientist-level panel data. We identify life scientists who start or join for-profit firms using information from the Small Business Innovation Research program and analyze the research performance of these scientists relative to a control group of randomly selected research peers. Combining our statistical results with data on the number of university spin-offs in the United States from 1994 to 2004, we find the academic brain drain has a nontrivial impact on knowledge production in the not-for-profit research sector.