Conveying Quality and Value in Emerging Industries: Star Scientists and the Role of Learning in Biotechnology

Managers of private entrepreneurial firms face obstacles in raising capital both in placing a value on a firm and conveying value to investors. These problems are exacerbated when the firm is small, has limited assets (except for human capital) and has yet to have a lead product. In such cases metrics are necessary to convey the value of the firm to investors. Here we explore the importance within the biotechnology industry of the non-financial metrics firms used to convey value during two important initial public offerings (IPO) windows (1989 to 1992 and 1996 to 2000). We also examine whether there was a change over time in the importance of various metrics in determining the value of a biotechnology firm. We find that firms with an affiliated Nobel laureate succeeded in raising the value of their firms by more than $30 million compared to firms without a Nobel laureate during the first period, suggesting that a Nobel laureate served as a powerful signal of firm value. Our results also suggest that the biotechnology regime changed and the Nobel Prize lost its luster as a signal of value in the second period. The importance of several other non-financial metrics changed as well. We conclude that these non-financial metrics of value change in relative importance to potential investors and financial markets as learning occurs and as an industry matures.

An examination of the reliability of prestigious scholarly journals: evidence and implications for decision-makers

In universities all over the world, hiring and promotion committees regularly hear the argument: “this is important work because it is about to appear in prestigious journal X”. Moreover, those who allocate levels of research funding, such as in the multi-billion pound Research Assessment Exercise in UK universities, often come under pressure to assess research quality in a mechanical way by using journal prestige ratings. This paper’s results suggest that such tendencies are dangerous. It uses total citations over a quarter of a century as the criterion. The paper finds that it is far better to publish the best article in an issue of a medium-quality journal like the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics than to publish the worst article (or often the worst 4 articles) in an issue of a top journal like the American Economic Review. Implications are discussed

Academic patenting: the importance of industry support

This paper provides evidence that university-industry collaboration is important for turning commercial opportunities into patents. The results suggest that researchers who receive a large share of research grants from industry have a higher propensity to file a patent. Small dissemination grants generally exert a positive effect, whether they come from industry or not. It also finds that these interactions do not increase the number of industry owned patents alone but benefit universities’ commercialisation efforts in general

Depuranat project: sustainable management of wastewater in rural areas

The Urban Wastewater Directive is aiming to implement adequate treatments of collected wastewater before 31 December 2005 in small communities with a population until 2000 equivalentinhabitant. Within the framework of the DEPURANAT project, co-financed by the European Interregional Cooperation Programme (Interreg IIIB Atlantic Arc), several Natural Reclamation Systems (NRS) based upon no-conventional technologies of wastewater treatment, have been studied from different points of view in rural areas: their effectiveness for producing regenerated wastewater of acceptable quality for several reuse options and vegetal biomass for different purposes, their environmental integration or their potential of implementation. Most of these treatment plants achieved high mean removal efficiencies: TSS (73–96%); BOD5 (74–94%); COD (53–90%); E. coli (2–3 log units); Enterococci (1.5–4 log units). The environmental impact of the systems was determined using an adapted life cycle assessment methodology and the economic analysis of the systems was focused on analysing the financial indicators, empirical cost functions, and the potential market for these technologies. Furthermore, maps of potential implementation of these systems and a support tool for deciding upon the installation of conventional or NRS were designed with the aim of promoting them.Communitary Interreg III-B Atlantic Area of EuropeDEPURANAT consortiu

Measuring efficiency of innovation using combined Data Envelopment Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling:empirical study in EU regions

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of patent applications, development level, employment level and degree of technological diversity on innovation efficiency. Innovation efficiency is derived by relating innovation inputs and innovation outputs. Expenditures in Research and Development and Human Capital stand for innovation inputs. Technological knowledge diffusion that comes from spatial and technological neighborhood stands for innovation output. We derive innovation efficiency using Data Envelopment Analysis for 192 European regions for a 12-year period (1995–2006). We also examine the impact of patents production, development and employment level and the level of technological diversity on innovation efficiency using Structural Equation Modeling. This paper contributes a method of innovation efficiency estimation in terms of regional knowledge spillovers and causal relationship of efficiency measurement criteria. The study reveals that the regions presenting high innovation activities through patents production have higher innovation efficiency. Additionally, our findings show that the regions characterized by high levels of employment achieve innovation sources exploitation efficiently. Moreover, we find that the level of regional development has both a direct and indirect effect on innovation efficiency. More accurately, transition and less developed regions in terms of per capita GDP present high levels of efficiency if they innovate in specific and limited technological fields. On the other hand, the more developed regions can achieve high innovation efficiency if they follow a more decentralized innovation policy

Are researchers deliberately bypassing the technology transfer office? An analysis of TTO awareness

Most universities committed to the commercialization of academic research have established technology transfer offices (TTOs). Nonetheless, many researchers bypass these TTOs and take their inventions directly to the marketplace. While TTO bypassing has typically been portrayed as deliberate and undesirable behavior, we argue that it could be unintentional as many researchers may simply be unaware of the TTO’s existence. Taking an information-processing perspective and using data on 3250 researchers in 24 European universities, we examine researcher attributes associated with TTO awareness. Our evidence confirms that only a minority of researchers are aware of the existence of a TTO at their university. TTO awareness is greater among researchers who possess experience as entrepreneurs, closed many research and consulting contracts with industry partners, conduct research in medicine, engineering or life sciences, or occupy postdoctoral positions. Policy implications of these findings are discussed

University-industry relationships and open innovation: Towards a research agenda

Accepted versio