| Entrepreneurial behavior by professors at top research universities, including decisions about collaboration with industry, patenting and spinning off companies, can affect the productivity of those universities' technology transfer efforts. Interviews both in person and through a Web survey with ninety-eight professors at twelve southeastern universities showed that the most significant influence on these decisions is the beliefs of the professors about the proper role of universities in the dissemination of knowledge. Other individual characteristics, such as age, academic quality and department, are also important. Younger professors are more likely to collaborate, patent and spin off. Engineers are more likely to undertake these activities than their peers in the life sciences. Life sciences professors may be influenced by the increasing ethical concerns in biotechnology. Some institutional policies, notably revenue splits with inventors, can also affect entrepreneurial decision-making. These findings suggest that both university incentive policies and ethical concerns about academic capitalism are affecting regional economic development by limiting the productivity of technology transfer efforts. |
