Revisiting the Entrepreneurial Commercialization of Academic Science: Evidence from “Twin” Discoveries

Matt Marx () and David H. Hsu ()
Additional contact information
Matt Marx: SC Johnson College of Business, Dyson School of Applied Management and Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853; National Bureau of Economic Research
David H. Hsu: Management Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

Management Science, 2022, vol. 68, issue 2, 1330-1352

Abstract: Which factors shape the commercialization of academic scientific discoveries via startup formation? Prior literature has identified several contributing factors but does not address the fundamental problem that the commercial potential of a nascent discovery is generally unobserved, which potentially confounds inference. We construct a sample of approximately 20,000 “twin” scientific articles, which allows us to hold constant differences in the nature of the advance and more precisely examine characteristics that predict startup commercialization. In this framework, several commonly accepted factors appear not to influence commercialization. However, we find that teams of academic scientists whose former collaborators include “star” serial entrepreneurs are much more likely to commercialize their own discoveries via startups, as are more interdisciplinary teams of scientists.

Keywords: university technology transfer; entrepreneurship; technology commercialization; “twin” scientific discoveries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.3966 (application/pdf)

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:inm:ormnsc:v:68:y:2022:i:2:p:1330-1352

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().