Commercializing University Innovations: Alternative Approaches

To What Extent is Academic Entrepreneurship Taken for Granted Within Research Universities?

“…Many universities, unfortunately, are still in 'the game' for maximal revenue generation through the 'big hit' of patenting-licensing. One ironic result of this is the aggregate slowing of commercialization of knowledge produced within universities (Litan et al, 2007). Moving towards a technology transfer orientation within universities that focused more on open source knowledge dissemination, non-exclusive licensing, and the building and nurturing of social networks among faculty graduate students, and entrepreneurs would, arguably, serve faculty entrepreneurs better, increase the rate of innovation into the marketplace, better preserve the traditional norms of open science, and as a result lead to greater cohesion among various communities of faculty within universities.…”

“…A comprehensive literature review is found in Rothaermel et al (2007). This literature spans both positive and normative dimensions of universities engaging in patenting and other forms of commercialization, including the opportunities and threats posed by the 'entrepreneurial turn' (e.g., Etzkowitz et al, 2000;Bok, 2003), the impacts of intellectual property laws and regulations on university technology transfer activities (e.g., Mowery et al, 2001;Murray 2006;Litan et al, 2007), the productivity and effectiveness of university technology transfer offices (Thursby and Kemp, 2002;Siegel et al, 2004), and motivations for, and explanations of, entrepreneurial behaviour within the academy (e.g., Owen-Smith and Powell, 2001;Stuart and Ding, 2006).…”

“…Although technology transfer officials vary in their views about what the primary objective should be, for example, maximizing university revenues from commercialization vs maximizing the speed by which 'good' ideas get out to would-be entrepreneurs or existing firms (Litan et al, 2007), as a group they still provide a very useful benchmark for measuring the attitudes of university commercialization of other types of actors.…”

The ‘entrepreneurial turn’ and regional economic development mission of universities

“…While the engaged university exercises its intellectual property rights, the "policies regarding intellectual property rights foster the availability of knowledge and research [outputs] as a public good" (CIC Committee on Engagement 2005, p. 5) rather than as a means of revenue generation for the university which often means the restriction of use through patenting exclusive licensure agreements. Such restrictions have ironically led to slower diffusion of innovations and lower rates of technological adoption in the economy as a whole (Litan et al 2007).…”

“…Some of the controversy revolves several kinds of unintended consequences of academic entrepreneurship. These include, first, the possibility that universities may be actually inhibiting the diffusion of knowledge that has commercialization potential in the way they have organized and managed their technology transfer activities (Litan et al 2007) and second, that the universities placing shift greater emphasis on applied research problems with commercialization potential may lead to an erosion in the quality and quantity of basic, fundamental research in the sciences and engineering (Nelson 1996).…”