A longitudinal comparative study of university research commercialization performance: Australia, UK and USA

Abstract

SummaryResearch commercialisation surveys are now available for Australia for Financial Years (FY) 2000 and 2002. This paper reviews longitudinal comparative data for research commercialisation performance in Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA. It discusses commercialisation performance measures, with a specific focus on entrepreneurial spin-off companies, and performance comparisons are made based on research expenditure in US dollars adjusted for purchasing power parity. Conclusions from these analyses suggest that, in recent years, Australian public agency performance in generating spin-offs per unit of research expenditure, adjusted for purchasing power parity, has been comparable or superior to some universities in other countries reviewed. However, Australian university revenue from intellectual property licensing royalties and research contracts has been below that of other countries studied. Analysis suggests that this results from problems in both demand – low business investment in R&D and hence low technology absorptive capacity – and supply, that is lack of time and lack of incentive to academic researchers to develop contacts with and meet the expectations of industry and other research users for technology that works.