Vertical alliance networks: The case of university-biotechnology-pharmaceutical alliance chains

Many young biotechnology firms act as intermediaries in tripartite alliance chains. They enter upstream partnerships with public sector research institutions, and later form commercialization alliances with established, downstream firms. We examine the alliance activity in a large sample of biotechnology firms and find: (i) firms with multiple in-licensing agreements are more likely to attract revenue-generating alliances with downstream partners; however, (ii) the positive relationship between in-licenses and downstream alliances attenuates as firms mature, and (iii) the diversity and the quality of the academic connections of firms’ principals influences their chances of successfully acquiring commercialization rights to scientific discoveries in universities.     

Who owns what? Private ownership and the public interest in recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s

This essay analyzes how academic institutions, government agencies, and the nascent biotech industry contested the legal ownership of recombinant DNA technology in the name of the public interest. It reconstructs the way a small but influential group of government officials and university research administrators introduced a new framework for the commercialization of academic research in the context of a national debate over scientific research's contributions to American economic prosperity and public health. They claimed that private ownership of inventions arising from public support would provide a powerful means to liberate biomedical discoveries for public benefit. This articulation of the causal link between private ownership and the public interest, it is argued, justified a new set of expectations about the use of research results arising from government or public support, in which commercialization became a new public obligation for academic researchers. By highlighting the broader economic and legal shifts that prompted the reconfiguration of the ownership of public knowledge in late twentieth-century American capitalism, the essay examines the threads of policy-informed legal ideas that came together to affirm private ownership of biomedical knowledge as germane to the public interest in the coming of age of biotechnology and genetic medicine.     

Empirical observations on New Public Management to increase efficiency in public research—Boon or bane?

New Public Management (NPM) was the catch phrase of the reforms in the public research and higher education sector for the last decades. The postulated effect of the NPM reforms is increased efficiency in governmental resource spending on the public higher education and research institutions. Though backed by theoretical considerations, this hypothesis has hardly been tested empirically. Using a unique dataset of German research units, this paper deals with the influence that NPM mechanisms have on research performance. Controlling for different university mission, it can be shown that both greater internal hierarchy (especially “strong presidents”) as well as greater operative flexibility for the researchers themselves increase research performance. Some of the variables, including the presence of research councils, have a positive effect on research efficiency under some definitions of research output. On the other hand, the introduction of resource accounting systems has a negative impact. All in all, we conclude that the public science sector reforms implemented in most of the Western economies were heading into the right direction by providing greater performance incentives and increasing allocative efficiency in resource spending. Also we provide some ideas of how NPM may be combined in order to construct a sensible governance system. We conclude that the mechanisms should be selected based on the mission of the university.     

The expanding role of university patenting in the life sciences: assessing the importance of experience and connectivity

We extend debates about the sources of university capabilities at research commercialization. Drawing upon quantitative data for a panel of 89 research-intensive US universities and interview data from two academic licensing offices, we model the relationship between technology transfer experience, embeddedness in biotechnology industry networks, basic science quality and capacity, and citation impact measures of university life science patents. Technology licensing officers draw upon the expertise of corporate partners to evaluate the potential impact of invention disclosures. The information gleaned through network ties to industry enables well-connected institutions to develop higher impact patent portfolios. Reaping the benefits of such connections, however, requires experience in balancing academic and corporate priorities to avoid the danger of ‘capture’ by industrial interests as overly tight connections limit patent impact. This pattern of diminishing returns to connectivity is robust across multiple citation measures of patent quality.     

Bottom-up versus top-down policies towards the commercialization of university intellectual property

What national policies are most efficient in promoting the commercialization of university-generated knowledge? We address this question by characterizing and evaluating the policy pursued in Sweden and the US, two countries that put a great deal of resources into university R&D, but follow very different models for commercialization. Despite a leading academic record, there is an impression of laggard rates of commercialization of academic research results in Sweden. Although there exist no micro data to evaluate this impression, we argue that it is likely to be true in part due to the top-down nature of Swedish policies aimed at commercializing these innovations as well as an academic environment that discourages academics from actively participating in the commercialization of their ideas. This sits in stark contrast to a US institutional setting characterized by competition between universities for research funds and research personnel, which in turn has led to significant academic freedoms to interact with industry, including significant involvement in new firms.     

英国公共科研机构的历史演进与新变革

国家科研机构作为国家战略科技力量的重要组成部分,在新科技革命加速推进和国家战略需求日益增长的形势下,面临着发展定位和组织管理的重大挑战。文章在回顾英国公共科研机构体系建设发展历程的基础上,分析了近10年新形势变化下英国公共科研机构改革发展的新思路和组织模式的新变革,尤其对代表性机构在使命定位、研发布局、外部管理、内部治理、科研组织等方面呈现的特征进行了深入剖析,以期为新时期我国国家科研机构的改革及新型研发机构的建设提供启示借鉴。     

科学家参与、知识转移与基于科学的企业持续创新

大学及公共研究机构的成果商业化越来越受到重视。为了更有效的转化其基础科研成果，一种新的基于科学的企业随之诞生。这类企业与基础科学研究紧密相连，以商业化大学和公共研究机构中的成果为目的，并试图从中获取财务回报。本文选取国内著名高校成果转化的成功案例，从“知识转移与吸收”的视角研究了大学与公共研究机构的成果转化，本文的研究表明：（1）对于综合复杂性基础科研成果，成立“基于科学的企业”是实现成果转化的有效途径；（2）科学家的深度参与商业化是实现隐性知识转移的有效方式；（3）基于科学的企业与大学或研究机构建立长期合作与反哺机制，有利于企业培养知识吸收能力并形成企业的持续创新能力；（4）政府多手段的支持降低了企业风险，为企业提供良好的创新环境。     

基于交易费用分析范式的高校技术转让问题研究

对高校技术转让过程中的交易费用进行规范研究后发现,机会主义行为、高校技术的不确定性和企业专用性投资所产生的高交易费用是我国高校技术转让率低下的根源。因此,科技政策的效果取决于能否降低交易费用。在此基础上把科技政策划分为引导型、中介型和制度型三类进行政策效果对比分析,最后对科技政策设计的总体目标以及所应遵循的思路进行讨论。     

China's national innovative capacity

China is transforming itself into the workshop of the world, building an export-oriented national production system linked by global value chains to the world's leading economies. But to what extent is it laying the foundations for moving from imitation to innovation? In this first study of China's national innovative capacity, we extend earlier work conducted on the East Asian Tiger economies, and bring it up to the year 2005. We demonstrate a surge in patenting activity by Chinese firms and organizations since 2001, and analyze the drivers behind this, as well as the quality characteristics of the patenting - in terms of intensity, impact and links with the science base. We have some striking findings to report, including the strong role played by universities in the building of China's national innovative capacity over the last 15 years, and the puzzling apparent lack of contribution of the public sector in reinforcing China's national innovative capacity. On the latter point we suggest that the role of public sector institutions has been mixed, and only exerts its effects after reforms streamlined the system and brought many of the institutions into the private sector.     

The spill-over theory reversed: The impact of regional economies on the commercialization of university science

The concept of regional technology spill-overs created by university research is one of the most enduring theories within the economic geography and innovation management fields. This article introduces an alternative perspective on academic commercialization, arguing that the quality of a university's regional environment can significantly impact a university's success in commercializing science. Recent research on university technology transfer stresses the importance of personal contacts between academic and industry scientists in driving commercialization. The social structure of the regional economy in which a university is embedded will strongly influence the density of contacts linking university scientists with individuals in industry, and through doing so, impact the density of networks through which university knowledge can be commercialized. Social network analysis is used to examine the quality of social ties linking industry and university scientists within the San Francisco and Los Angeles California biotechnology industries over the 1980–2005 period. Results support the theory that the existence of strong social networks linking inventors heightens university commercialization output. Despite similar university research endowments, universities in San Francisco have dramatically commercialization outputs than San Francisco, which is correlated with the existence of cohesive inventor networks linking industry and university scientists in this region, but not Los Angeles. Moreover, longitudinal analysis shows that the commercialization output of San Francisco universities increased substantially starting in the early 1990s, the time period in which cohesive inventor networks emerged in the region.     

Commercial science, scientists’ values, and university biotechnology research agendas

Policies designed to promote the commercialization of university science have provoked concern that basic and publicly accessible research may be neglected. Commercialization policies have altered traditional institutional incentives and constraints, which raises new questions regarding the influence of scientists’ values on university research agendas. Our research builds on previous quantitative studies measuring changes in research outcomes and qualitative studies probing differentiation among scientists’ value orientations. We developed a nation-wide survey of 912 plant and animal biotechnology scientists at 60 research universities. Our analysis reveals that scientists’ value orientations on what we classify as “market” and “expert” science affect the amount of industry funding they receive, the proprietary nature of their discoveries, and the percentage of basic science research conducted in their laboratories. We also find that the percentage of industry funding is significantly associated with more applied research. Our findings provide insights for science and society theory and suggest that strong incentives for public-science research along with adequate public-research funds to preserve the university's vital role in conducting basic and non-proprietary research are needed to complement private-sector research investments at universities.     

创新型国家目标下政府科技研发组织体系的变革与发展

本文以创新型国家政府科技研发组织体系的共性变革趋势为基础,通过时我国科技体制改革的历史回顾,揭示了现阶段我国政府科技研发组织体系中仍待解决的主要问题,指出在建设创新型国家的目标下,我国的政府科技研发组织体系必须做出适应性调整和完善,包括:以创新体系的要求再造公共科研组织体系,多举措做强企业技术研发支撑组织,以及以组织和制度创新引领跨部门跨组织合作,推动合作研发的深度发展.     

National institutions, public-private knowledge flows, and innovation performance: A comparative study of the biotechnology industry in the US and France

The biotechnology industry is a striking example of the disconnect between the location of knowledge creation and its commercial development. I argue that national technological performance in biotechnology is critically affected by institutions governing scientific careers, which shape the professional identities and boundary-spanning activities of research scientists. I test this in a comparison of the United States and France. Drawing on fieldwork and analysis of patent data, I compare institutional frameworks and estimate models of forward patent citations. The models show that entrepreneurial firms are associated with high-performing innovations in this sector whereas large established firms perform poorly in both countries, and highlight the importance of institutions in creating country-specific combinations of human capital with organizational capabilities.     

Understanding the impact of commercialization on public support for scientific research: is it about the funding source or the organization conducting the research

This research examines the influence of commercialization on support for scientific research. It compares the effects of the funding source with the type of organization on public support for stem cell research. Using a national Australian telephone survey (n = 1000), the results reveal that support drops significantly when scientific research is funded by private rather than public interests, and even more so when it is conducted in a private company rather than a public university. Respondents' preference for university research was enhanced if they trusted universities, distrusted major companies and believed that the research would be beneficial. A preference for public funding was also associated with lower trust in companies and a belief that the research would benefit people. Implications of these results are discussed in relation to the challenge of maintaining public support in an increasingly commercialized research environment.     

公立科研机构组织形态演变与政府治理模式选择

过去20年来,一些国家相继对本国公立科研机构的组织形态和治理模式进行了大幅度的改革,引人注目.公立科研机构变革的根本原因在于公立科研机构内外环境的急剧改变.探究这些国家公立科研机构组织形态和政府治理模式的演变.对于我国政府把握现代公共科研活动的运行具有重要意义.     

French science policy and the changing role of the university

The role of university research in France is examined in the light of recent science policy shifts and structural changes at both the national and university levels. The efforts of the government to develop a science policy and to make that policy serve social and economic goals have eroded the traditional conception of the individual university scientist autonomously pursuing his own research on funds routinely channeled through the administrative hierarchy. The growth of contractfunding, the proliferation of public sources of financing, the elevation of higher education affairs to ministerial status, the call for universities to devise distinctive research profiles and policies, the shifting, overlapping responsibilities of national agencies and departments, and the general leveling off of public expenditure in R&D -all these are factors contributing to increased tension in the university research community. The interaction of these developments with persistent patterns of behavior and influence of the university scientific community in local and national decision-making has produced a series of contradictions and conflicts in university research policy which recently announced decisions are unlikely to dispel.     

Research and data-sharing policy in Sweden – neoliberal courses,forces and discourses*

ABSTRACT

The discourse of openness has proved to be a very powerful instrument for promoting new research policies and the (neoliberal) reforms of higher education in all so-called ‘advanced economies’. It has triggered positive democracy-, transparency-, and accountability-related associations when used in the context of politics, fair resource distribution when used in the sphere of public service, and free access to information and knowledge when used in the field of science and higher education. At the same time, international research shows that university autonomy is increasingly being attacked, reduced, and marginalized by the same policies. Power instances outside academia impose new criteria, such as ‘accountability,’ ‘performance,’ ‘quality assurance,’ and ‘good practice.’ They also impose ideas about what good research is, which scientific method is to be prioritized, and what good data are. The process of the de-professionalization, polarization, and proletarianization of the academic profession is increasingly affecting academia. However, none of this has much in common with the open-access discourse. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how this discussion applies to Sweden. Courses, forces, and discourses of the national research infrastructure development policy in general, and qualitative data preservation policy in particular, are described and deliberated.     

A national systems view of university entrepreneurialism: Inferences from comparison of the German and US experience

Examining parallels in the long-term evolution of the German and US university systems, this paper formulates hypotheses about the rise and decline of university entrepreneurialism at the national level. Three macro-level antecedents of university entrepreneurialism are identified: (1) decentralized competition; (2) latitude in mission and revenue mix; (3) a nationwide, diversified bidding system for the funding of large-scale university-based research. Of these, the third is real lynchpin of university entrepreneurialism. Arguing for a multidimensional understanding of such entrepreneurialism (i.e. beyond just the commercialization of scientific discoveries), the paper identifies three developments within universities emanating from a favorable national environment: (1) organizational innovations for achieving economies of scope; (2) an institutionalized capacity for strategic selection of research foci; and (3) a capacity to contribute to the development of new industries. The analysis suggests that as national university systems grow and run into cost containment problems, political pressures for reform increase, leading to system homogenization; system homogenization weakens the contextual sources of entrepreneurialism and triggers a process of decline.     

Technological trajectory based on micro level technological capability: Evidence from the Brazilian rice industry

This study examines technological capability accumulation and the Brazilian rice industry's technological trajectory. Multiple case design was chosen, with an analysis of seven firms involved in the Brazilian rice industry. The results indicate three factors: The first was the identification of technological landmarks for firms in this sector (peeling and polishing, electronic grain selection, electronic packaging, use of forklifts and palletizers, and Industry 4.0). The second is related to the fact that different firms implemented innovative activities and technologies at different speeds, originating from the sector's different technological trajectories. The third is associated with identifying activities within the Brazilian rice industry that can be generalized to other food industries. These results have implications for formulating public policies in the sector, such as creating producer support mechanisms (research and technology transfer institutions), qualification of professionals, and encouragement for economic efficiency and competition.     

我国生物医药科技成果转化的制约因素分析和战略规划建议

为提高我国生物医药科技成果转化率，缩短与美欧等国家和地区差距，推动生物医药产业快速向高能级发展，基于科技创新成果转化理论，从科技成果转化的流程、模式及其相关发展要素等方面对我国生物医药科技成果转化的制约因素进行全面分析，发现创新研发导向偏差、全国性知识网络转化不畅、专项资金支撑不足等是当前影响最为深刻的三大制约因素；据此提出应增强政府政策的针对性和实效性、提升国家创新体系的成果转化效能、全方位打造多层次科技成果转化金融体系等战略规划建议。