Patenting rationales of academic entrepreneurs in weak and strong organizational regimes

Abstract

This study explores why academic entrepreneurs seek patents for spin-off technology in weak organizational regimes (the employee owns her inventions) and strong organizational regimes (the employer, i.e. the university or research organization, owns these inventions). Specifically, we examine organizational and founding team characteristics as alternative explanations. Matched data of academic spin-offs from both contexts combined with patent data show that founding team characteristics (expert knowledge and entrepreneurial orientation) matter in weak, but not strong regimes. In contrast, organizational patenting norms are the key driver of patenting in strong, but not weak regimes. We discuss the implications of our results for the current literature and technology transfer policies.