Opening the Dam or Building Channels: University Patenting and the Use of Public Science in Industrial Innovation

Opening the Dam or Building Channels: University Patenting and the Use of Public Science in Industrial Innovation
Author(s): Fabrizio, Kira
Year: 2006
Paper Number: GBS-OM-2006-001
Goizueta Department: Organization and Management

Abstract

Innovation and technological advance depend on the accumulation and diffusion of research knowledge. Firm R&D often depends on access to and utilization of knowledge that originates outside the boundaries firm, and a firm’s ability to access and exploit this knowledge is affected by the prevailing intellectual property environment. Universities, traditionally a source of basic science and technological innovation available to industrial researchers, have increasingly patented research results produced by academic researchers. Increased patenting by universities may limit or slow the dissemination and exploitation of patented and non-patented university research results. In this paper, I examine the relationship between the change in university patenting and changes in firm citation of public science, as well as changes in the pace of knowledge exploitation by firms, measured using changes in the distribution of backward citation lags in industrial patents. Results suggest that increasing university patenting is associated with a slowing pace of knowledge exploitation.