Promoting university-industry linkages in Japan: Faculty responses to a changing policy environment

Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation

Volumn 26, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 39-54

  Walsh, John P ^a   Baba, Yasunori ^a   Goto, Akira ^a   Yasaki, Yoshihito ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Innovation; Japan; Technology licensing organizations; University reform; University industry ties

Indexed keywords

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY; COMMERCIALIZATION; INNOVATION; INSTITUTIONAL REFORM; POLICY REFORM; SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISE; TECHNOLOGY POLICY;

ASIA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; JAPAN;

EID: 39149143051     PISSN: 08109028     EISSN: 14701030     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/08109020701846025     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Funding for this research was provided by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Grants in Aid of Special Coordination for Promoting Science and Technology and the Abe Fellowship Program. We benefited from helpful comments from Sadao Nagaoka, Fumio Kodama, Jun Suzuki, Pablo D'Este, Kate Walsh, and participants in the following meetings and seminars: International Schumpeter Society Meeting (Nice), Japan Science and Technology Studies Associated Annual Meeting (Tokyo), University of Chicago Workshop on the Sociology and Cultures of Globalization, University of Illinois at Chicago Sociology Department Seminar Series, Technology Transfer Society Annual Meeting (Atlanta), Workshop on Exploring and Mapping University-Industry Relationships (Imperial College, London) and Workshop on Japanese Approaches to Local Development, Clusters, Industry-University Linkages and Implications for British Columbia (University of British Columbia, Vancouver).
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25. Because there are self-reported survey responses, we should be aware that there may be some response biases. In order to limit this, we will generally look for with-in respondent differences, rather than absolute values, when making inferences. The cross-national comparison may be especially sensitive to differences in understanding question wordings and so on. To limit this, we tried to be specific about the content of words such as 'research tie' by giving several examples of possible research ties (see below). However, we should be sensitive to possible response biases and socially desirable response effects when interpreting results, especially absolute averages, which are likely to be biased upwards for many items.
26. The question was: 'We would like to ask you about your research ties (including joint research, contract research, personnel exchanges, consulting, etc.) with researchers from other organizations. For each of the following, do you currently have a research tie to such organizations? Did you have a tie with someone from these organizations five years before?'
27. We were concerned about a particular form of response bias resulting from younger respondents being more likely to say 'no' to questions about any kind of tie from five years ago. To check whether our results on changes are due to cohort effects, we reran this analysis for only those respondents with 10 or more years seniority. Not surprisingly, the percent having research ties with firms were higher for more senior scientists (83% having ties to large firms and 55% having ties to SMEs in 2003). However, the change over the last five years was quite similar for the older respondents compared to the whole (see Figure 5). For the more senior scientists, who were at risk for having ties in both 1998 and 2003, we find a 12 percentage-point increase in ties to large firms (compared to an 11 point increase for the whole sample) and a 20 percentage-point increase in ties to SMEs (compared to an 18 point change for the whole sample) [results available from the contact author]. These similar findings for the senior researchers suggest that the observed change is not due simply to younger scientists reporting activity in the later period but not the earlier period due to being not at risk for ties five years ago, giving us more confidence that our findings are not due to this type of response bias.
28. The question was: 'For each research partner, please choose the most important reason for having a research tie with that partner'.
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31. The question was: 'Links between universities and firms (including domestic and foreign corporations, small and medium size firms, venture firms, etc.) can take many forms and have various effects. Which of the following ties have you had with firms? Please tell us about now, and about five years ago'.
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34. Field-level results available from contact author.
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37. Compare with Hashimoto, op. cit..
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44. Compare with Mowery et al., op. cit.
45. Blumenthal et al., op. cit..
46. Campbell et al., op. cit..
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48. Nelson, 'The market economy and the scientific commons', op. cit..
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50. Nelson, 2004, op. cit.
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54. The question was: 'In your research over the last five years how have the following changed?' Specific items included: Consideration of the business potential when choosing research projects; likelihood of delaying publication due to business considerations; likelihood of your requests for research materials being denied; likelihood of your responding to other's requests for research materials (reverse coded); willingness to discuss ongoing research with those outside the collaboration (reverse coded); having to stop research because of someone else's patent. The answers were on a five-point scale, from 'substantial decrease' to 'substantial increase'. We recoded the answers as 'increase' (four or five on the five point scale) or 'no increase' (one, two, or three).
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58. Campbell et al., op. cit..
59. National Research Council, Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences, National Academic Press, Washington, DC, 2003.
60. Walsh et al., 2007, op. cit.
61. Agrawal and Henderson, op. cit..
62. Cohen et al., op. cit.
63. D. E. Stokes, Pasteur's Quadrant, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC, 1997.