University trustees as channels between academe and industry: Toward an understanding of the executive science network

Abstract

Policy makers in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) see “autonomous” research universities as increasingly central to “world class” status, technology development and economic innovation. Trustees or regents (US) and external board members (EU) are seen as a marker of university autonomy. Examining university trustees may shed some light on the role of trustees/external board members play in research strategy, innovation and economic development. Given that a number of trustees of US research universities sit on the boards of directors of large corporations with research interests, we hypothesized that trustees may be an important channel connecting universities to innovation and economic development. To date, university trustees have not been studied as a channel between academe and industry that enables scientific discovery, technology development and economic innovation.The analysis concentrates on the trustees of the twenty-six private US Association of American Universities (AAU). This organization includes some of the oldest research universities, where trustees have long played an important part. The ties between university trustees and the corporate boards of which they are directors were examined in 1997 and 2005 to see if trustees served as channels between academe and industry. The findings indicate that while the number of trustees stayed the same, there was a drop of roughly one-third of the number of trustees connected to corporations. However the percentage of trustees connected to science-based corporations remained the same. There was an increased convergence between the research fields of a university and the science fields of the corporations to which trustees are connected. Finally, there is evidence that the number of university trustees connected to science-based corporations positively influences the amount of R&D funding a university receives. Given the results, we conclude by theorizing the rise of an executive science network that plays an instrumental role in relations among universities and industry.