Sen Chai

Bridging science and technology through academic–industry partnerships

Partnerships that foster the translation of scientific advances emerging from academic research organizations into commercialized products at private firms are a policy tool that has attracted increased interest. This paper examines empirical data from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation, an agency that funds partnerships between universities and private companies. We assess the effect on participating firms’ innovative performance, comparing patent count, publication count and proportion of cross-institutional publications between funded and unfunded firms. Specifically, we measure the impact on each of these variables based on three dimensions – small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), younger firms, and size of the collaboration firms participated in – to establish boundary conditions. Our results suggest that receiving funding affects firms’ innovative behavior differently depending on the type of firm, where (1) peer-reviewed publications increased significantly more for SMEs and larger projects, (2) granted patents increased significantly up to 4 years after funding for young firms and those in larger projects, and (3) proportion of cross-institutional publications increased significantly more 3 years after funding for all three sample specifications.

Near Misses in the Breakthrough Discovery Process

Why do researchers on the verge of breakthrough sometimes miss the discovery? While extensive literatures have modeled the course of successful discovery and pinpointed factors associated with groundbreaking discoveries, I focus on understanding why near misses occur by interviewing scientists who were very close to discovering the ribonucleic acid RNA interference breakthrough in biology but ultimately missed out. I identify three mechanisms rooted in paradigmatic rigidity that led to the seminal discovery being missed several times: not noticing or recognizing anomalies, actively resisting solutions, and failing to make the link between communities. These findings shed light on the process of breakthrough by clarifying that a better understanding of the mechanism behind near misses is crucial to mitigating them, saving time, and, consequently, boosting productivity and impact. They also have implications for boosting creative breakthrough performance in academic institutions and science-based firms, as well as for designing organizational research environments and guiding innovation strategy.

Bridging Science and Technology through Academic-Industry Partnerships

Partnerships that foster the translation of scientific advances emerging from academic research organizations into commercialized products at private firms are a policy tool that has attracted increased interest. This paper examines empirical data from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation, an agency that funds partnerships between universities and private companies. We assess the effect on participating firms’ innovative performance, comparing patent count, publication count and proportion of cross-institutional publications between funded and unfunded firms. Specifically, we measure the impact on each of these variables based on three dimensions – small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), younger firms, and size of the collaboration firms participated in – to establish boundary conditions. Our results suggest that receiving funding affects firms’ innovative behavior differently depending on the type of firm, where (1) peer-reviewed publications increased significantly more for SMEs and larger projects, (2) granted patents increased significantly up to 4 years after funding for young firms and those in larger projects, and (3) proportion of cross-institutional publications increased significantly more 3 years after funding for all three sample specifications.