Across disciplines, to make an impact. The technological impact of boundary-spanning research projects

Federico Munari, Hérica Morais Righi and Laura Toschi

Technovation, 2025, vol. 141, issue C

Abstract: Boundary spanning research is increasing recognition among scholars and policymakers due to its potential in generating novel and breakthrough scientific contributions. However, while previous research mainly investigated its effect for the scientific domain, less is known about how boundary spanning approaches in science are related to technology transfer activities. To investigate this issue, we examine 6081 research projects in the Life Sciences, Physical & Engineering, and Social Sciences & Humanities sectors funded by the European Research Council under the 7th Framework Programme and Horizon 2020 Programme in the period 2008–2016. Our results show that boundary spanning research projects and the probability to generate technological impact through patent citations are linked through an inverted U-shape relation, thus recognizing both benefits and costs to this research approach. Moreover, as research integrates knowledge from more diverse scientific domains, its technological applications expand correspondingly across a broader range of technical fields. Finally, we show that these relations change according to the seniority of the researcher performing the scientific activity.

Keywords: Boundary spanning; Technology transfer; Scientific publications; Technological impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166497225000161
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:techno:v:141:y:2025:i:c:s0166497225000161

DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2025.103184

Access Statistics for this article

Technovation is currently edited by Jonathan Linton

More articles in Technovation from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().