Decisions to Pursue IPR by Academic Scientists: The Impact of Individual and Institutional Factors

This dissertation investigates the factors that determine academic scientists' decisions to pursue intellectual property rights (IPR) during the stages of project selection and invention disclosure, which are early phases of research commercialization that take place in universities. Based on previous studies, IPR decisions are modeled as determined by individual factors – expected returns from patenting and personal attitudes towards open science – and institutional factors – formal and informal rules in universities as well as the attributes of university technology transfer offices. In addition, this dissertation takes the investigation a step further by arguing that the effects of institutional factors on IPR decisions will be mediated by the degree to which benefits from patenting are perceived and open science attitudes held by scientists. Proposed hypotheses are tested using survey data from 1,340 assistant, associate, and full professors in universities in the United States.;Findings indicate that individual factors are more relevant to scientists' decisions to consider IPR during project selection, while institutional factors are more influential for decisions to disclose inventions. This means that existing university institutional mechanisms may not effectively encourage scientists to consider research commercialization when selecting research projects. Moreover, the effects of institutional factors on IPR decisions of academic scientists are found to be mediated by expected benefits of patenting and the perceived compatibility between the pursuit of IPR and open science attitudes held by scientists. These findings suggest that policy makers and university managers who intend to encourage research commercialization in universities should consider establishing formal rules that provide scientists monetary and non-monetary incentives, and installing values that help recognize the legitimacy of patenting activities in universities.