Are Faculty Critical? Their Role in University-Industry Licensing

Understanding the nature of the involvement of faculty in university licensing is important for understanding how technology is transferred through licensing as well as more controversial issues, such as the need for university licensing. Using data from a survey of firms that actively license-in from universities we explore the importance of faculty in the licensing and development of inventions, as well as how and why they are used and how the use of faculty relates to characteristics of firms. In particular we find that the use of faculty through sponsored research in lieu of a license is closely related to the amount of basic research conducted by firms whereas the use of faculty within the terms of a license is related to the prevalence of personal contacts between industry R&D researchers and university faculty.