Abstract
Boundary-spanning research is increasing recognition among scholars and policymakers due to its potential in generating novel and breakthrough scientific contributions. However, while previous studies investigated its effect on the scientific audience, less is known about how boundary-spanning approaches are related to technology transfer activities. To investigate this issue, we examine the relationship between boundary-spanning research projects, that integrate knowledge from diverse disciplinary fields, and their ability to generate technological impact. We analyze the set of scientific publications generated by 3,697 research projects funded by the European Research Council - the most important funding agency for frontier research in Europe - and identify the subsequent patents citing them in order to trace the linkages between science and technology. Our results show that boundary-spanning research projects and technological impact are linked through an inverted U-shape relation, thus recognizing both benefits and costs of this approach. Moreover, we hypothesize that this relationship changes according to the characteristics of the organizational context in which the scientific activity unfolds, by analyzing the moderating effect of the applied nature of the host institution of the project.
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