Publications
Publications
- 2024
- HBS Working Paper Series
The Wandering Scholars: Understanding the Heterogeneity of University Commercialization
By: Josh Lerner, Henry Manley, Carolyn Stein and Heidi Williams
Abstract
University-based scientific research has long been argued to be a central source of
commercial innovation and economic growth. Yet at the same time, there have been
long-held concerns that many university-based discoveries never realize their potential
social benefits. Looking across universities, research and commercialization activities
such as start-up formation vary tremendously – variation that could reflect the composition
and orientation of faculty research, university-level factors such as patenting
and licensing efforts, or broader place-based factors such as location in a technology
cluster. We take a first step towards unpacking this heterogeneity in university commercialization
by analyzing how the propensity of academic research to spill over to
commercial innovation changes when academics move across universities. Our estimates
suggest that at least 15–25% of geographic variation in commercial spillovers
from university-based research is attributable to place-specific factors.
Keywords
Citation
Lerner, Josh, Henry Manley, Carolyn Stein, and Heidi Williams. "The Wandering Scholars: Understanding the Heterogeneity of University Commercialization." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 24-043, January 2024.