Academic Engagement, Commercialization, and Scholarship: Empirical Evidence from Agricultural and Life Scientists at U.S. Land-grant Universities

Bradford L. Barham, Jeremy Foltz and Ana Paula Melo

No 26688, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This article examines the involvement of agricultural and life science faculty at U.S. land grant universities in two types of university-industry relations: academic engagement (sponsored research, industry collaborations, and presentations), academic commercialization (patenting, licensing, and start-ups) and traditional academic scholarship. It exploits large-scale, random sample cross-section surveys of nearly 1,500 scientists at the original 52 Land Grant Universities in 2005 and 2015. We fill a knowledge gap regarding the prevalence, coincidence, intensity, importance and factors shaping faculty involvement in university-industry relations (UIR). After several decades of promotion and emphasis on UIR activities participation in them has plateaued and is stable at a fairly high level. Academic engagement is far more prevalent (at 76% of faculty) and important than is academic commercialization (at 19% of faculty). Academic engagement generates 15-20 times the research funds than academic commercialization does, but both continue to be dwarfed by public funding. We find evidence of synergies between UIR activities and academic scholarship. We also explore how individual, institutional, and university-level factors help explain faculty UIR participation. We find differences across academic disciplines and highlight the role that faculty attitudes toward science and commercial activity shape involvement in UIR. Significant differences also stem from university level effects and may be contingent on culture, history, location, and quality of science.

JEL-codes: I23 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-ino
Note: PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Academic Engagement, Commercialization, and Scholarship: Empirical Evidence from Agricultural and Life Scientists at US Land Grant Universities , Bradford Barham, Jeremy Foltz, Ana Paula Melo. in Economics of Research and Innovation in Agriculture , Moser. 2021

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Chapter: Academic Engagement, Commercialization, and Scholarship: Empirical Evidence from Agricultural and Life Scientists at US Land Grant Universities (2020)
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