Academic faculty as intellectual property in university-industry research alliances

Abstract

In this article, we consider a particular type of strategic alliance that is perhaps most difficult to operate: those involving universities and industry that are based in a university setting. We consider this type of research alliance because while we know they face formidable challenges in terms of property rights – with the academic faculty participating in these alliances constituting the ‘property’ – there is very little study of how to address these challenges. Accordingly, we review a number of literatures focused on the shared use of human capital, from management science, organizational behavior, and science policy studies, among others, emphasizing the incenting of collaborative, boundary-spanning research. We discern lessons from these literatures for incenting industry-focused research in university settings and make some recommendations for future research on university-industry research alliances.