Scholarly work seeking to understand academics' commercial activities often draws on abstract notions of the academic reward system and of the representative scientist. Few scholars have examined whether and how scientists' motives to engage in commercial activities differ across fields....

Economists studying innovation and technological change have made significant progress towards understanding firms’ profit incentives as drivers of innovation. However, innovative performance in firms should also depend heavily on the pecuniary and nonpecuniary motives of the individuals...

We examine the impact of individual-level motives upon innovative effort and performance in firms. Drawing from economics and social psychology, we develop a model of the impact of individuals' motives and incentives upon their innovative effort and performance. Using data on over 11,000...

FrontMatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction--Cohen and Merrill -- Patent Quality -- Are All Patent Examiners Equal? Examiners, Patent Characteristics, and Litigation Outcomes--Cockburn, Kortum, and Stern -- Patent Examination Procedures and Patent Quality--King -- Patent Quality Control:...

We examine whether startups attract employees with different pecuniary and non-pecuniary motives than small or large established firms. We then explore whether such differences in employee motives lead to differences in innovative performance across firm types. Using data on over 10,000 U.S. R&D...