The role of corporate scientists in innovation

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2005.07.007 Byline: Ryuzo Furukawa (a), Akira Goto (b)(c) Keywords: Corporate scientist; Core scientist; Co-author; Citation; Innovation Abstract: We conducted empirical analysis of the role of corporate scientists in Japanese pharmaceutical companies using data on published papers and patent applications. We found that scientists with the highest publication performance scores did not apply for a considerably greater number of patents than other researchers in their companies. Instead, we found that these 'core scientists' had a positive effect on the number of patent applications filed by their co-authors. Our findings suggest that core scientists play an important role as central conduits for the in-flow of knowledge from outside their companies, thereby stimulating innovation. Author Affiliation: (a) Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, 6-6-11 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan (b) Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan (c) Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan Article History: Received 7 September 2004; Revised 11 March 2005; Accepted 23 July 2005