nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2013‒09‒24
two papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration

  1. Academic patenting and the scientific enterprise: Lessons from a Japanese university. By René Carraz
  2. Herding cats? Management and university performance By McCormack, John; Propper, Carol; Smith, Sarah L.

  1. By: René Carraz
    Abstract: In this paper, we study the influence that academic patenting has on faculty members belonging to a research intensive Japanese uni- versity. We intend to contribute to the literature on both the use of patenting in academia and the influence it has on a researcher’s agenda setting. First, we document how recent policy changes have favored an increasing use of patents by faculty members in Japan. Then, us- ing two complementary set of data, cross-section and panel data, we focus our attention on three main dimensions: the effect of patenting on academic productivity measured in terms of publications and their quality; the role of financial factors; and the influence of peer effects. Our main findings are the following. First, we find that patenting and publishing were complementary activities in our two empirical settings. Moreover, we find that the output of colleagues working in the same department influences a researcher propensity to patent. The results show as well that the amount of contractual research funds received by a researcher is positively correlated with his/her number of patents, while the number of research grants - not the amount - is correlated to his/her patenting output. Finally, another interesting result concerns the influence of a researcher’s age on his/her propensity to patent.
    Keywords: Academic patenting, peer effects, intellectual property rights, technology transfer, university-industry relationships, Japanese innovation system.
    JEL: O3
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2013-12&r=sog
  2. By: McCormack, John; Propper, Carol; Smith, Sarah L.
    Abstract: Using a tried and tested measure of management practices which has been shown to predict firm performance, we survey nearly 250 departments across 100+ UK universities. We find large differences in management scores across universities and that departments in older, research-intensive universities score higher than departments in newer, more teaching-oriented universities. We also find that management matters in universities. The scores, particularly with respect to provision of incentives for staff recruitment, retention and promotion, are correlated with both teaching and research performance conditional on resources and past performance. Moreover, this relationship holds for all universities, not just research-intensive ones.
    Keywords: management practices; performance; universities
    JEL: I32 M51 M54
    Date: 2013–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9560&r=sog

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