Impact of university intellectual property policy on the performance of university-industry research collaboration

Abstract

Despite various expected advantages, university-industry research collaboration (UIC), a relationship between two different worlds, often faces serious difficulties. Thus, the performance of UIC depends on the research partners' strategies to bridge the gaps between them according to the institutional environment. In Japan, UIC has developed rapidly since the late 1990s based on drastic institutional changes regarding universities. We pay special attention to the role of the university intellectual property (IP) policy introduced after 2003 and empirically examine its impact on the performance of UIC projects. A clear and equitable IP policy that can be applied flexibly to the needs of partners would be optimal for a UIC to be efficiently managed. Otherwise, the project might face serious conflicts of interests and low incentive for cooperation. Using a sample of Japanese firms from our original survey, we find that the IP policy of partner universities indeed has a positive and significant impact on various performances of UIC projects, controlling for firm and project characteristics and considering potential selection bias from UIC participation.

The effectiveness of policies for formal knowledge transfer from European universities and public research institutes to firms

“…A possible explanation for the negative effects of published policies is that they reduce room for negotiations between universities or research institutes and private firms, or at worst scare away potential private sector investors. This supports Okamuro and Nishimura's (2013) findings that companies appreciate flexible IP policies, at least to some extent. The alternative explanation that poorly performing KTOs introduce publication policies in order to improve their performance is unlikely, given the results of Table 9 that show that publication policies do not improve the performance of institutions with above average performance for licencing and start-ups.…”

“…Wright et al (2008) find that the use of identical patent policies across institutions can help to attract the R&D activities of larger companies. Conversely, Okamuro and Nishimura (2013), in a study of Japanese companies, find that university IP policies which flexibly meet firms' needs have a positive effect on the number of patents and new products produced by university-industry collaborations.…”

“…H4 follows from H3 by improving client expectations. With regard to H5, we point to Okamuro and Nishimura (2013): publishing policies might limit the flexibility in dealing with external clients.…”

Avaliação De Desempenho Multicritério Da Relação Universidade Empresa: Estudo De Caso Em Uma Universidade Pública

“…Os pesquisadores da academia e empresas privadas muitas vezes têm interesses, objetivos, restrições e incentivos consideravelmente diferentes. Essas disparidades podem causar sérios conflitos, mal-entendidos e desconfianças entre os parceiros da relação U-E e, assim, diminuir a satisfação dos participantes e enfraquecer a eficácia da relação (OKAMURO;NISHIMURA, 2013). Mas quando essas barreiras são superadas, além das empresas e da própria universidade, os benefícios são estendidos para a sociedade em geral (PIVA; ROSSI-LAMASTRA, 2013).…”

Determinants of national patent ownership by public research organisations and universities

“…These reasons have been the motivation for regulatory changes in some countries to allow universities to own patents (Baldini 2006a;Baldini et al 2006) and in universities to share royalties with academic inventors and departments (Baldini 2010) or to accommodate IPR sharing with partners (Okamuro and Nishimura 2013). Patents are one of the few benefits in common of establishing partnerships for university and industry (Ankra et al 2013), although academics mainly use patents for commercialisation and prefer other channels of interaction for research purposes (Gaughan and Corley 2010;D'Este and Perkmann 2011).…”