University patenting: patterns of faculty motivations

Abstract

Few papers address the issue of faculty motivations to patent and none comprehensively investigates why faculties decide not to patent. To fill this gap, I surveyed Italian faculty inventors of university-owned patents (N=208) and non-inventors working in the same disciplines (N=416). Major motivations to patent are prestige/reputation and knowledge exchange. Although universities rely almost exclusively on royalties, I show that researchers are sensitive to diverse incentives, whose importance varies according to both personal characteristics and the context. Surprisingly, patents are not perceived by non-inventors as inappropriate to academic activities or as obstacles to publications and conferences.