Doctoral dissertation research: Impact of academic entrepreneurship on doctoral student innovation

博士论文研究：学术创业对博士生创新的影响

• 批准号: 1933387
• 负责人: Peter Thompson
• 金额: $ 2.55万
• 依托单位: Georgia Tech Research Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2021-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1933387&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; dissertation; research; Impact; academic

This project examines the impact advisor entrepreneurial activities on the innovative output of doctoral students. Entrepreneurial ventures are widely considered a fundamental engine for employment and economic growth. Individuals who engage in entrepreneurship come from a variety of backgrounds, including (and increasingly) academe. The participation of university professors in entrepreneurship has experienced a surge in recent years, which has contributed to the creation of technology- and knowledge-intensive companies. This increase of entrepreneurial activity comes partially as a response to universities promoting entrepreneurship among the faculty. As universities and public policy makers increase the incentives for faculty members to start companies, they should, however, also carefully consider the implications for the other roles played by university professors. Despite the time and resources invested in promoting academic entrepreneurship, little is known about the implications of faculty engagement in entrepreneurship on, for example, creating public knowledge and training students. This project examines the latter by analyzing the extent to which an advisor's engagement in entrepreneurship impacts their doctoral students' innovative output, highlighting the trade-off between two different channels of knowledge transfer from universities to private firms. One is through the creation of university spinoffs, while the other is embodied by students. Overall, this research provides a better understanding of how professors' commercial activities may have long-lasting effects on their students' innovative productivity and careers, thereby ultimately influencing the rate and direction of inventive activity. This project uses rich administrative data on doctoral students and professors in computer science and engineering at a highly-ranked US research university, to assess variation in doctoral students' innovation and career outcomes, before and after research faculty transition into entrepreneurship. The data encompass information on professors' nationality, gender, ethnicity, age, salaries, federal funding, the number and quality of publications, as well as information on their patenting output and the number of startups they have established. These data are complemented by matching professors to their doctoral students, based on information provided by the Registrar's Office of the examined institution. For doctoral students, data includes detailed information on nationality, age, year of admission and graduation, major, GRE scores, GPAs, gender, and ethnicity, previous degree-granting institutions, careers before and after graduation, as well as publication, and patent records. The empirical approach applied to this study makes use of the richness of the available data to address potential biases induced by sorting and endogeneity of entrepreneurial activity. The findings of this study enhance our knowledge about the potential side-effects of professors' commercial activities on the innovative output and career trajectories of the doctoral students they advise. As such, this project takes an important step towards understanding the consequences of academic entrepreneurship for both universities and future innovators.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目研究了顾问创业活动对博士生创新产出的影响。创业企业被广泛认为是就业和经济增长的基本引擎。从事创业的个人来自不同的背景，包括（并且越来越多）学术背景。近年来，大学教授参与创业的人数激增，促进了技术和知识密集型企业的创建。创业活动的增加部分是对大学促进教师创业精神的回应。然而，随着大学和公共政策制定者加大对教师创办公司的激励，他们也应该仔细考虑这对大学教授所扮演的其他角色的影响。尽管在促进学术创业方面投入了时间和资源，但人们对教师参与创业的影响知之甚少，例如，创造公共知识和培训学生。该项目通过分析顾问参与创业对其博士生创新产出的影响程度来研究后者，强调从大学到私营企业的两种不同知识转移渠道之间的权衡。一种是通过创建大学衍生品，另一种是通过学生来体现。总体而言，这项研究让我们更好地了解教授的商业活动如何对学生的创新生产力和职业产生长期影响，从而最终影响发明活动的速度和方向。该项目利用美国一流研究型大学计算机科学与工程专业的博士生和教授的丰富管理数据，评估研究型教师转变为企业家之前和之后博士生创新和职业成果的变化。这些数据包括教授的国籍、性别、种族、年龄、工资、联邦资助、出版物的数量和质量的信息，以及他们的专利产出和所建立的初创公司数量的信息。根据受审查机构注册办公室提供的信息，将教授与博士生进行匹配，对这些数据进行了补充。对于博士生，数据包括国籍、年龄、入学和毕业年份、专业、GRE成绩、GPA、性别和种族、以前的学位授予机构、毕业前后的职业、以及出版物和专利的详细信息记录。本研究采用的实证方法利用丰富的可用数据来解决创业活动的排序和内生性引起的潜在偏差。这项研究的结果增强了我们对教授商业活动对其指导的博士生的创新产出和职业轨迹的潜在副作用的了解。因此，该项目在了解学术创业对大学和未来创新者的影响方面迈出了重要一步。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。