Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Inventive Output of Academic Research: a Comparison of Two Science Systems

Meyer, Martin S., Du Plessis, Mariette, Tukeva, Tania, Utecht, Jann-Timour (2005) Inventive Output of Academic Research: a Comparison of Two Science Systems. Scientometrics, 63 (1). pp. 145-161. ISSN 0138-9130. (doi:10.1007/s11192-005-0207-1) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:33712)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-005-0207-1

Abstract

This paper compares the inventive output of two science systems in small European countries. More specifically, we examine patented inventions of Finnish and Flemish university researchers. The comparison includes inventive output as such and its concentration on organizations, inventors, and corporate owners as well as foreign assignations and the degree to which individual inventors have retained the ownership of the patents. While there are commonalities between the Finnish and Flemish systems in terms of patent concentration on key institutions and corporate assignees, there are also pronounced differences with respect to the ownership structure of academic patents, which was expected in light of the different intellectual property regulations. Our observations seem to suggest that the total inventive output of a research system is not a function of the prevailing intellectual property system but rather in correspondence to overall national inventiveness thereby pointing to more general (national, cultural) drivers of academic inventive activity. From a methodological viewpoint, this research illustrates that tracing university-owned patents alone would leave considerable technological contributions of academics unidentified - also in countries where universities own the rights to their researchers’ patents. Another finding with potential methodological implications is that patents are highly concentrated on institutions. If such a distribution law applies to large countries as well, analysts could cover most of the national academic patent output by an intelligent selection of universities.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1007/s11192-005-0207-1
Subjects: H Social Sciences
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Kent Business School (do not use)
Depositing User: Martin Meyer
Date Deposited: 26 Apr 2013 10:00 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:11 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/33712 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Meyer, Martin S..

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.