Academic engagement and commercialisation: A review of the literature on university-industry relations
Journal article, 2013

A considerable body of work highlights the relevance of collaborative research, contract research, consulting and informal relationships for university–industry knowledge transfer. We present a systematic review of research on academic scientists’ involvement in these activities to which we refer as ‘academic engagement’. Apart from extracting findings that are generalisable across studies, we ask how academic engagement differs from commercialisation, defined as intellectual property creation and academic entrepreneurship. We identify the individual, organisational and institutional antecedents and consequences of academic engagement, and then compare these findings with the antecedents and consequences of commercialisation. Apart from being more widely practiced, academic engagement is distinct from commercialisation in that it is closely aligned with traditional academic research activities, and pursued by academics to access resources supporting their research agendas. We conclude by identifying future research needs, opportunities for methodological improvement and policy interventions.

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University-Industry relations

transfer

intellectual property

Technology transfer

ivory tower

knowledge

Commercialisation

scientific-knowledge

Academic entrepreneurship

resource-based

bayh-dole act

technology-transfer

research-and-development

public research organizations

Author

M. Perkmann

V. Tartari

Tomas McKelvey

University of Gothenburg

E. Autio

A. Brostrom

P. D'Este

R. Fini

A. Geuna

R. Grimaldi

A. Hughes

S. Krabel

M. Kitson

P. Llerena

F. Lissoni

A. Salter

M. Sobrero

Research Policy

0048-7333 (ISSN)

Vol. 42 2 423-442

Subject Categories

Economics

DOI

10.1016/j.respol.2012.09.007

More information

Created

10/10/2017