Essays on Technology Transfer at American Universities at Critical Time Points

Abstract

This dissertation investigates technology transfer within American higher education across time. As such, the second section of this dissertation explores the formation of the first technology transfer office at a public university. Here, historical arguments for and against a public institution delving into academic entrepreneurialism via patenting are explored. Critical to this section is understanding the importance of the intersection between the university and the state’s key industry. Importantly, this paper argues that academic capitalism pre-dated the Bayh–Dole Act of 1980. In other words, the landscape of higher education underwent a shift to a more market-like regime decades prior to 1980, paving a new norm.

Beyond a changing face of American higher education, a different type of change is examined in the third section. Said section focuses on the passing of the America Invents Act (AIA), where the legal inventor(s) would be the one(s) who filed for a patent first. Pre-AIA, the legal inventor(s) would be the one(s) who created an idea first. Accordingly, the patenting behavior of universities was examined to see if it spurred after the passage of the AIA, as time became a critical component for patenting rights. Using a difference-in-differences model, R1 institutions, or very high research institutions, are found to be patenting more than R2s post-AIA, or high research activity institutions, supporting the argument that the passage of the AIA widened the patenting gap between institution types. Thereby, such legislation further prompted universities into market-like behaviors in order for them to be competitive in the new patenting system.

Lastly, the fourth section focuses on how the passage of the AIA affected the patenting activities of female personnel at American universities. Accordingly, using a difference-indifferences approach, this section found that males are out-patenting females at R1 institutions. While there are programs that exist to support female patenting engagement at higher education institutions, the persistent gender patenting gap calls for more support in order to encourage females’ patenting pursuits. Overall, these sections provide a larger overview of technology transfer at American universities over time, and how academic capitalism continues to evolve within the context of American higher education.