Creativity and the Family Tree: Human Capital Endowments and the Propensity of Entrepreneurs to Patent

In this paper we show that the patenting behavior of creative entrepreneurs is correlated with the patenting behavior of their fathers, which we refer to as a source of the entrepreneurs' human capital endowments. Our argument for this relationship follows from established theories of developmental creativity, and our empirical analysis is based on survey data collected from MIT's Technology Review winners.patents, entrepreneurship, human capital endowments

An Empirical Analysis of the Propensity of Academics to Engage in Informal University Technology Transfer

Formal university technology transfer mechanisms, through licensing agreements, research joint ventures, and university-based startups, have attracted considerable attention in the academic literature. Surprisingly, there has been little systematic empirical analysis of the propensity of academics to engage in informal technology transfer. This paper presents empirical evidence on the determinants of three types of informal technology transfer by faculty members: knowledge transfer, joint publications with industry scientists, and consulting. We find that male and tenured faculty members are more likely to engage in all three forms of informal technology transfer. We also find that academics who allocate a relatively higher percentage of their time to grants-related research are more likely to engage in informal commercial knowledge transfer.

An Econometric Analysis of Trends in Research Joint Venture Activity.

Edith Penrose was one of the first scholars to point out that firms may need to rely on research joint ventures (RJVs) to acquire access to resources that can help them achieve and sustain a competitive advantage. We estimate an econometric model of the propensity of firms to disclose their intension to engage in RJVs, in order to explain the recent precipitous decline in RJVs filed with the U.S. Department of Justice. We find that RJV activity is inversely related to the competitive position of U.S. firms in global high-technology industries and that the establishment of the U.S. Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) induced a structural change in the propensity of firms to engage in RJVs. Thus, two factors may explain the recent downturn in RJV filings: a substantial improvement in U.S. global performance in high-technology markets and a sharp decline in ATP funding.

Elastic response of the electron fluid in intrinsic graphene: The collisionless regime

The elastic response of an electron fluid at finite frequencies is defined by the electron viscosity $\eta(\omega)$. We determine $\eta(\omega)$ for graphene at the charge neutrality point in the collisionless regime, including the leading corrections due to the electron-electron Coulomb interaction. We find interaction corrections to $\eta(\omega)$ that are significantly larger if compared to the corresponding corrections to the optical conductivity. In addition, we find comparable contributions to the dynamic momentum flux due to single-particle and many-particle effects. We also demonstrate that $\eta(\omega)$ is directly related to the nonlocal energy-flow response of graphene at the Dirac point. The viscosity in the collisionless regime is determined with the help of the strain generators in the Kubo formalism. Here, the pseudo-spin of graphene describing its two sublattices plays an important role in obtaining a viscosity tensor that fulfills the symmetry properties of a rotationally symmetric system.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Barriers Inhibiting Industry from Partnering with Universities: Evidence from the Advanced Technology Program

A small sample of 38 Advanced Technology Projects funded between 1993 and 1996 are surveyed to explore the reasons for university non-participation, or, in the cases where they did participate, whether the partnerships encountered any difficulties from their participation. 32 percent report that intellectual property issues were an insurmountable barrier to university participation. Such barriers are more likely when the ATP share of funding is high and when the expected duration of the research is relatively short. They are also somewhat more likely for projects involving chemical technology, and when industrial participants have had previous experience with universities as research partners. These difficulties over IP may arise because the cultures in the two institutional forms differ, or because the original ATP guidelines do not recognize the existence of the Bayh-Dole Act (which grants universities title to inventions made by their employees using outside funding).

Universities as Research Partners

Universities are a key institution in the US innovation system and an important aspect of their involvement is the role they play in Private-Public Partnering activities. This study seeks to gain a better understanding of the performance of university-industry research partnerships using a sample survey of pre-commercial research projects funded the U.S. government's Advanced Technology Program. Although results must be interpreted cautiously due to the small size of the sample, the study finds that projects with university involvement tend to be in areas involving "new" science and therefore experience more difficulty and delay but also are more likely not to be aborted prematurely. We interpret this finding to imply that universities are contributing to basic research awareness and insight among the partners in ATP-funded projects.