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This article analyzes how institutional differences affect university entrepreneurship. We focus on ownership of faculty inventions, and compare two institutional regimes, the United States and Sweden. In the United States, the Bayh–Dole Act gives universities the right to own inventions from publicly funded research, whereas in Sweden, the professor privilege gives the university faculty this right. We develop a theoretical model and examine the effects of institutional differences on modes of commercialization, entrepreneurship or licenses to established firms, as well as on probabilities of successful commercialization. We find that the US system is less conducive to entrepreneurship than the Swedish system if established firms have some advantage over faculty startups, and that, on average, the probability of successful commercialization is somewhat higher in the United States. We also use the model to perform four policy experiments, as suggested by recent policy debates in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is an increasing realization of the difficulties professionals in innovation-related jobs face in bridging the interface of technology and business. Further, the use of technology for business innovation increasingly involves technologies transferred across businesses or from universities to industry, either through licensing or engagement of entrepreneurial enterprises, requiring coordination of efforts by inventors, business, and legal professionals. Recent studies in technology entrepreneurship recommend integrated approaches to educating students to operate in this space. We discuss the benefits and challenges of integrated approaches to graduate education in technology entrepreneurship in the context of an NSF-sponsored program that teams science and engineering PhD students with law and MBA students. The curriculum focuses on the technical, legal, and business issues involved with moving fundamental research to the marketplace. We draw on program assessment data, which includes pre- and post-surveys and a control group. We find significant and positive effects of the program on student perceptions of the multidisciplinary capabilities needed to operate in a technological business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the role of patents as signals used to reduce information asymmetries in entrepreneurial finance. A theoretical model gives conditions for a unique separating equilibrium in which startup founders file for patents to signal invention quality to investors, as well as appropriating value. The theory allows for heterogeneous investors and examines the optimal match of different types of startups, as defined by the quality of their technology, to investors who differ in the amount of non financial capital they provide. The empirical analysis is consistent with the model's predictions using a novel dataset of Israeli startups that received external funding during the period 1994-2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a theoretical model of startup signaling with multiple signals and potential differences in external investor preferences. For a novel sample of technology incubator startups, we empirically examine the use of patents and founder, friends, and family (FFF) money as such signals, finding that they are jointly endogenous to venture capital and business angel investment in the startups. For this sample, venture capitalists appear to value patents more highly than FFF money, while the reverse is true for business angels. Moreover, the impact of patents on venture capitalists is larger than the impact of FFF money on business angels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nanotechnology and biotechnology 'revolutions' are so-called because their enabling technological breakthroughs were not simply inventions, but discoveries of entirely new methods of inventing. We hypothesize that university participants in either or both of these areas will exhibit greater collaboration with industry than researchers in other areas. We explore this hypothesis for 454 faculty members who conducted research that was patented during the period 1994-1999. Because our data include patents, publications, and funding at the individual level, we are able to examine the industry interaction of faculty who participated in the nanotechnology and biotechnology revolutions, as well as the interaction of faculty contributing to other areas of patentable science. We examine a variety of linkages, including sponsored research, consulting, publication with firm employees and measures of the potential for cross-campus collaboration. The results are striking in that they show significant differences in collaborative behavior across patent types and across the major program areas biological sciences, physical sciences and engineering. The results are consistent with a greater degree of tacit knowledge within the new methods of inventing. We also find significant differences in the embryonic nature and importance of patents across areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incumbent firms are often thought to focus on incremental innovations and only respond to a major technological change once its impact on established markets and/or dominant designs becomes clear. We argue, however, that incumbent firms have many reasons to proactively invent early in cycles of technological change. Our interest is in the strategies that allow incumbents to be successful in this endeavor during the infancy of an emerging field-the period before it is clear how the field will affect dominant designs. Our evidence counters the stereotypical view that incumbent firms play a passive role in major technological changes by adhering to incremental inventions in the existing dominant designs. Rather, we find significant inventions by incumbents outside the existing dominant designs and relate their success to their willingness to search novel areas, explore scientific knowledge in the public domain, and form alliances with a balanced portfolio of partners. We find support for our hypotheses using data from the global semiconductor industry between 1989 and 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of appropriability on invention have been well studied, but there has been little analysis of the effect of appropriability on the commercialization of existing inventions. Exploiting a database of 805 attempts by private firms to commercialize inventions licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 1980 and 1996, we explore the influence of several appropriability mechanisms on the commercialization and termination of projects to develop products based on university inventions. Our central hypothesis is that the relationship between a licensee's decision to either terminate or commercialize the invention is driven by the current market value of the invention, as well as the option value of delaying its commercialization. We use a competing risks framework that allows for nonparametric heterogeneity and correlated risks. We find that better appropriability in the sense of more effective patent strength and secrecy has a strong negative effect on the hazard of license termination. The effectiveness of learning has a strong positive effect on the hazard of technology commercialization, while lead time has a negative effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Licensing of university inventions to industry has experienced rapid, recent growth. This growth is cited as evidence of university success in technology transfer and it suggests an increasing importance of universities to innovation systems. Concerns have been raised that universities are moving towards applied research and away from fundamental research in efforts to capture licensing income. However, figures on growth in licensing perhaps paint a misleading picture, given the substantial variation in licensing success across universities, scientific fields, and technologies. The paper is organized around the following questions. What is the rationale behind university patenting and licensing? How embryonic are university inventions and how often is further development necessary? What is the record on exclusive versus non-exclusive licensing? What is the record on licensing revenue? What are university licensing goals? What is the role of faculty after a licence is signed? Have faculty been diverted from their traditional role in research? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functioning well in a global, technology-driven, multi-disciplinary environment necessitates a more robust educational paradigm, especially in science and engineering. For a scientific education to be complete, it can no longer be restricted solely to technical areas. Similarly, law and business students will encounter a slew of technologies throughout the course of their careers. They will be required to comprehend the intricacies and corresponding implications of these technologies in order to impart their perspectives effectively and have an impact. In an effort to address this widely recognized need, a number of multi-disciplinary education and innovation programs have recently surfaced. Although several of these have been documented in the literature, the experiences of participants and the manner in which these will influence their future career plans as well as personal goals are not usually taken into account. Our focus in this paper is to shed light on this ‘end effect’ of being exposed to a multi-disciplinary education by stressing the importance of understanding social, economic, and legal aspects of science and engineering within the context of a scientific graduate-level education. Specifically, the authors take a closer look at the TI:GER ® 1(Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program. Based on their experiences, the authors present their learning and insight on multi-disciplinary education in a mixed technical and professional degree setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we extend our earlier work on science and engineering faculty disclosure and licensing activity to examine a characteristic of faculty ignored in our earlier work – the gender of faculty in our database of over 4500 faculty at 11 major universities. Not surprisingly, women comprise only 8.55% of the faculty in our sample. They are most represented in the biological sciences and the women in the sample are more likely to be younger faculty. The most striking result from highlighting women in the sample is that women are less likely to disclose inventions than men despite the fact that there are no significant differences in publication patterns. While disclosure activity varies by gender, we find that the disclosure activity of women and men converges over the period of our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the nature of the involvement of faculty in university licensing is important for understanding how technology is transferred through licensing as well as more controversial issues, such as the need for university licensing. Using data from a survey of firms that actively license in from universities, the authors explore the importance of faculty in the licensing and development of inventions, as well as how and why they are used and how the use of faculty relates to characteristics of firms. In particular, the authors find that the use of faculty through sponsored research in lieu of 'a license is closely related to the amount of basic research conducted by firms, whereas the use of faculty within the terms of a license is related to the prevalence of personal contacts between industry research and development researchers and university faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors previously explored invention licensing from the university's perspective. In this paper we focus on the process from the perspective of firms activity engaged in licensing technology. A survey of industry licensing professionals addresses why some firms license technologies from universities and why others do not. The paper then considers the stage of development of university technologies, the characteristics of their licensing contracts, and sources of information about university technologies, all to better understand how the process works and what advantages and disadvantages it offers to all participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, commercial use of university research has been viewed in terms of spillovers. Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in technology transfer through licensing as universities attempt to appropriate the returns from faculty research. This change has prompted concerns regarding the source of this growth&specifically, whether it suggests a change in the nature of university research. We develop an intermediate input model to examine the extent to which the growth in licensing is due to the productivity of observable inputs or driven by a change in the propensity of faculty and administrators to engage in commercializing university research. We model licensing as a three-stage process, each involving multiple inputs. Nonparametric programming techniques are applied to survey data from 64 universities to calculate total factor productivity (TFP) growth in each stage. To examine the sources of TFP growth, the productivity analysis is augmented by survey evidence from businesses who license-in university inventions. Results suggest that increased licensing is due primarily to an increased willingness of faculty and administrators to license and increased business reliance on external R&D rather than a shift in faculty research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of the Bayh-Dole Act argue that industrial use of federally funded research would be reduced without university patent licensing. Our survey of U.S. universities supports this view, emphasizing the embryonic state of most technologies licensed and the need for inventor cooperation in commercialization. Thus, for most university inventions, there is a moral-hazard problem with inventor effort. For such inventions, development does not occur unless the inventor's income is tied to the licensee's output by payments such as royalties or equity. Sponsored research from the licensee cannot by itself solve this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes results of our survey of licensing at 62 research universities. We consider ownership, income splits, stage of development, marketing, license policies and characteristics, goals of licensing and the role of the inventor in licensing. Based on these results we analyze the relationship between licensing outcomes and both the objectives of the TTO and the characteristics of the technologies. Patent applications grow one-to-one with disclosures, while sponsored research grows similarly with licenses executed. Royalties are typically larger the higher the quality of the faculty and the higher the fraction of licenses that are executed at latter stages of development. Sponsored research is more likely to be included in a license if the new technology is at an early stage of development or if the TTO evaluates it as important. We find that additional disclosures generate smaller percentage increases in licenses, and those increases in licenses generate smaller percentage increases in royalties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on an article regarding the effect of currency devaluation on domestic agricultural prices. Points raised by the article's authors; Shortcoming of the model used; Argument on the claim that there are neither theoretical nor empirical reasons for domestic prices to rise by no more than the rate of devaluation.

Presents information on price differentials of products. Details of product differentiation; Models that incorporate differentiated products.

The 1970s have seen sharp fluctuations in grain prices. Several plausible explanations for the unusual severity of these ups and downs have been advanced, including devaluation of the dollar for the upswing in 1972-74. U.S. wheat prices for the year of highest prices, 1973-74, are examined. A trade model that distinguishes wheat by country of origin is used to analyze various events in that year. It is concluded that insulating trade policies by wheat exporters and importers had the largest impact on U.S. wheat prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract--Bilateral trade flows are used to examine the Linder hypothesis and the effect of exchange rate variability in a gravity-type trade model derived from an underlying demand and supply model. A behavioral model is used to justify examining these issues jointly. The model performs well empirically using a sample of 17 countries for the period 1974-1982. We find overwhelming support for the Linder hypothesis and this version of the gravity model. Moreover, we find strong support for the hypothesis that increased exchange rate variability affects bilateral trade flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract--This paper examines nine models of aggregate import demand for each of five countries (Canada, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States) in an attempt to determine which of the frequently used single equation models of import demand are appropriate. An appropriate model is defined as one which generates unbiased (or at least consistent) and efficient elasticity estimates. While models without lagged adjustments and Almon lag models perform rather poorly according to these criteria, models including dynamic behavior through lagged values of the dependent variable are frequently accepted. Results are reported regarding functional form, measures of variables, and structural shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines three different types of neutral technical change which have been referred to as Hicks neutrality (HN). Formally, HN requires that the marginal rate of substitution between each pair of inputs be independent of technical change. Implicit Hicks neutrality (IHN) requires that the marginal rate of substitution between each pair of inputs be independent of technical change at constant factor proportions. Extended Hicks neutrality refers to a situation in which the production function can be multiplicatively decomposed into a function of inputs only and another function of technical change only. Neutrality in a Hicksian sense concerns technical change which leaves marginal rates of substitution between each pair of inputs unchanged. To compare situations before and after technical change, something must be held constant. Exactly what is to be held constant has been the subject of some debate, and constitutes the crux of the issue at hand. In the absence of input homotheticity, IHN neither implies nor is implied by HN. In models where a non-homothetic technology is specified and structured implicitly, IHN is the most natural way of dealing with technical change. The three types of Hicksian neutrality are in general different and some care needs to be taken to distinguish among them.

We analyse a dynamic North-South model of innovation, technology transfer, and trade. Northern firms conduct R&D using labour which has alternative uses producing in the R&D sector or a nontraded good sector. Since technology transfer prevents the North from fully appropriating benefits of R&D, the optimal rate of innovation for either profit maximizing firms or a utility maximizing Northern planner is less than globally optimal. An increased transfer rate intensifies competition of lower wage Southern workers with Northern workers in production, so profit maximizing Northern firms (irrespective of their number or cooperation in R&D) reallocate labour toward R&D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines anticipatory product standards intended to improve the strategic position of firms in an international patent race. Research and development (R&D) by firms to develop products that are close substitutes; R&D under a national standard; Impact of standards set on consumers; Example of state-contingent policy.

This article examines how market structure and enforcement affect smuggling and welfare in a model where smuggling is camouflaged by legal sales. Conditions are given for when some, but not necessarily all, firm smuggle. With camouflaging, the market price is below the price when all sales are legal, so smuggling improves welfare if the price effect outweighs excess smuggling cost. This welfare effect is directly related to the degree of competition. Increased enforcement in this model potentially reduces welfare. The model is shown to be consistent with evidence on cigarette smuggling in the U.S. for year 1975-1982.