Organizational and individual determinants of patent production of academic scientists and engineers in the United States

[Eugene Garfield]

Organizational and individual determinants of patent production of academic scientists and 
engineers in the United States

Author(s): Huang, WL (Huang, Wan-Ling); Feeney, MK (Feeney, Mary K.); Welch, EW (Welch, 
Eric W.)
Source: SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY  Volume: 38  Issue: 6  Special Issue: SI  Pages: 463-479  
DOI: 10.3152/030234211X12960315267895  Published: JUL 2011  

Abstract: This article contributes to an important literature on the determinants of academic 
patenting. We develop and test a model that predicts how individual characteristics and 
organizational factors affect individual patenting production. The analysis uses zero-inflated 
negative binomial regression on data from a 2010 national survey of 1,379 US-based university 
scientists and engineers, 624 of which hold no patents assigned to their current university. 
Findings from this research generally support our hypotheses that individual and organizational 
factors are associated with individual patent production. We find that while university patent 
policy and university technology transfer offices may be important for encouraging or 
discouraging scientists to patent the first time, department incentives and individual 
preferences and characteristics predict the number of patents that faculty produce. This 
research supports prior literature and develops new perspectives on how universities and 
policy-makers can understand and shape how individual and organizational constraints and 
incentives affect patent productivity.

Language: English
Document Type: Article
KeyWords Plus: PUBLIC RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS; BAYH-DOLE ACT; INTELLECTUAL 
PROPERTY; TECHNOLOGY-TRANSFER; UNIVERSITY INVENTIONS; OPEN SCIENCE; LIFE-CYCLE; 
KNOWLEDGE; FACULTY; GROWTH

Addresses: [Huang, WL; Feeney, MK; Welch, EW] Univ Illinois, Sci Technol & Environm Policy 
Lab, Dept Publ Adm, Chicago, IL 60607 USA
Reprint Address: Huang, WL (reprint author), Univ Illinois, Sci Technol & Environm Policy Lab, 
Dept Publ Adm, COPPA Hall,M-C 278,412 S Peoria St, Chicago, IL 60607 USA

E-mail Address: whuang24 at uic.edu, mkfeeney at uic.edu, ewwelch at uic.edu
ISSN: 0302-3427
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/beech/spp/2011/00000038/00000006/art00005