From Publishing to Patenting : do Productive Scientists Turn into Academi Inventors ?

摘要

The paper presents an empirical study on the relationship between academic researchers' patenting and publishing activities, based upon a sample of patent applications and scientific papers authored by Italian university professors. By treating patents as discrete events punctuating professors' routine publishing activity over time, we conclude that no major trade-off exists: academic inventors do not publish less than their colleagues with no patents, and do not show any bias towards more applied, less basic science. On the contrary, more productive professors are more likely to end up signing one or more patents; in addition, a temporary increase in a professor's scientific productivity increases the probability of a subsequent patenting event, which suggests that patents are the by-product of fertile research projects. Former scientific collaboration with industry, in the form of co-authored papers, affects positively the probability to patent with Business companies, especially in Biology and Pharmaceutics. This evidence is in line with recent results obtained for the US.