Waverly W. Ding

When do scientists become entrepreneurs? The social structural antecedents of commercial activity in the academic life sciences.

The authors examine the conditions prompting university‐employed life scientists to become entrepreneurs, defined to occur when a scientist (1) founds a biotechnology company, or (2) joins the scientific advisory board of a new biotechnology firm. This study draws on theories of social influence, socialization, and status dynamics to examine how proximity to colleagues in commercial science influences individuals’ propensity to transition to entrepreneurship. To expose the mechanisms at work, this study also assesses how proximity effects change over time as for‐profit science diffuses through the academy. Using adjusted proportional hazards models to analyze case‐cohort data, the authors find evidence that the orientation toward commercial science of individuals’ colleagues and coauthors, as well as a number of other workplace attributes, significantly influences scientists’ hazards of transitioning to for‐profit science.

The Impact of Information Technology on Academic Scientists' Productivity and Collaboration Patterns

This study investigates the impact of information technology (IT) on productivity and collaboration patterns in academe. Our data combine information on the diffusion of two noteworthy innovations in IT---BITNET and the Domain Name System (DNS)---with career-history data on research-active life scientists. We analyzed a random sample of 3,114 research-active life scientists from 314 U.S. institutions over a 25-year period and find that the availability of BITNET on a scientists campus has a positive effect on his or her productivity and collaborative network. Our findings also support the hypothesis of a differential effect of IT across subgroups of the scientific labor force. Women scientists and those working at nonelite institutions benefit more from the availability of IT in terms of overall research output and an increase in the number of new coauthors they work with than do men or individuals at elite institutions. These results suggest that IT is an equalizing force, providing a greater boost to productivity and more collaboration opportunities for scientists who are more marginally positioned in academe.

From Bench to Board: Gender Differences in University Scientists’ Participation in Commercial Science

This paper examines gender differences in the participation of university life science faculty in commercial science. Based on theory and field interviews, we develop hypotheses regarding how scientists’ productivity, co-authorship networks, and institutional affiliations have different effects on whether male and female faculty become “academic entrepreneurs”. We then statistically examine this framework in a national sample of 6,000 life scientists whose careers span more than 20 years. We find sharp gender differences in participation in for-profit ventures, which we measure as the likelihood of joining the scientific advisory board (SAB) of a biotechnology firm. Compared to men, women life scientists are much less likely to advise for-profit biotechnology companies. We also identify factors that contour this gender difference, including scientists’ co-authorship network structure and the level of support for commercial science at their universities. Surprisingly, we find that the (conditional) gender gap is largest among faculty members at the highest status institutions.