1,720,974 research outputs found
Mobility Intentions of Foreign Researchers: The Role of Non-economic Motivations
Full text linkRecent contributions suggest that non-economic factors could be important motivational drivers of scientific mobility. We investigate this hypothesis in a sample of foreign researchers in Italy and Portugal, examining their willingness to leave the host country. We distinguish between economic factors, non-economic relational factors and non-economic aspirational factors. Controlling for the relevant contextual variables, we find that foreign researchers, unsatisfied with aspirational factors (e.g. level of independence, autonomy, intellectual challenge and social status), are more likely to leave their host country and move to a third country than they are to return to their countries of origin. Relational and economic factors, such as salary and benefits, do not demonstrate any additional impact.CEM
Like Stars: How Firms Learn at Scientific Conferences
Full text linkScientific conferences are an underexplored channel by which firms can learn from science. We provide empirical evidence that firms learn from scientific conferences in which they participate but also that this is conditional on intense participation. Using data from conference papers in computer science since the 1990s, we show that corporate investments in participation are both frequent and highly skewed, with some firms contributing to a given conference scientifically, some as sponsors, and some doing both. We use direct flights as an instrumental variable for the probability that other scientists participate in the same conference as a firm, altering the knowledge set to which the firm is exposed. We find that a firm’s use of scientists’ knowledge increases when they participate in the same conferences. Greater participation efforts, where the firm seeks the spotlight by both sponsoring the conference and contributing to its scientific discourse, foretell research collaborations and a stronger learning effect. Such learning is disproportionately concentrated among the most prominent firms and scientists rather than benefitting those without alternative interaction channels. Therefore, on average, firms learn from scientists that they encounter at conferences, but the substantial heterogeneity of the effect reflects the influence of reputation mechanisms in social interactions
Patents and Knowledge Diffusion: The Effect of Early Disclosure
Full text linkWe study how the timing of information disclosure affects the diffusion of codified technical information. On November 29, 2000, the American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) reduced the default publication time of patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to 18 months. We analyze the effects of this change by means of a regression discontinuity design with time as an assignment variable and a complementary difference-in-differences analysis. Our study shows that information flows from patents measured by forward citations, increased. Interestingly, the degree of localization within geographic boundaries remained unchanged and technological localization even increased moderately. Moreover, the effect of early disclosure on citations from patents filed by patent attorney service firms is particularly strong. These results imply that knowledge diffusion stemming from speedier disclosure of technical information is confined to the existing attention scope and absorptive capacity of inventors and organizations
Return mobility and scientific productivity of researchers working abroad: The role of home country linkages
No full textThrough an analysis of 497 foreign researchers in Italy and Portugal we verify the impact of home linkages on return mobility choices and scientific productivity. We consider the presence of several different types of linkages of the researchers working abroad with their country of origin and control for the most relevant contextual factors (age, research area, position in the host country, etc.). The probability of return to their home country and scientific productivity in the host country are both higher for researchers that maintain home linkages. We conclude that the presence of home linkages directly benefits both countries in addition to the indirect benefit of expanding the scientific networks. Policy implications and suggestions for further research are discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.CEM
The productivity of science & engineering PhD students hired from supervisors’ networks
No full textWe compare the scientific productivity of PhD students who are hired from a fine-grained set of mutually exclusive affiliation types: a PhD supervisor's affiliation, an external affiliation from which the supervisor derives her coauthors, and an external affiliation with which the supervisor has no coauthorship ties. Using a novel dataset of science and engineering PhD students who graduated from two major Swiss universities, we find that the most productive PhD category is the one made of students who are affiliated with universities other than their supervisors’ affiliation, but from which the PhD supervisors derive their coauthors. This result suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between PhD students’ productivity and the social distance from their supervisors. Additionally, we find evidence consistent with the role of supervisors’ coauthor networks in resolving information asymmetries regarding PhD talent.CEM
Science Quality and the Value of Inventions
Full text linkDespite decades of research, the relationship between the quality of science and the value of inventions has remained unclear. We present the result of a large-scale matching exercise between 4.8 million patent families and 43 million publication records. We find a strong positive relationship between quality of scientific contributions referenced in patents and the value of the respective inventions. We rank patents by the quality of the science they are linked to. Strikingly, high-rank patents are twice as valuable as low-rank patents, which in turn are about as valuable as patents without direct science link. We show this core result for various science quality and patent value measures. The effect of science quality on patent value remains relevant even when science is linked indirectly through other patents. Our findings imply that what is considered “excellent” within the science sector also leads to outstanding outcomes in the technological or commercial realm
Asymmetric Information and R&D Disclosure: Evidence from Scientific Publications
Full text linkWe examine how asymmetric information in financial markets affects voluntary research and development (R&D) disclosure, considering scientific publications as a disclosure channel. Difference-in-differences regressions around brokerage house mergers and closures, which increase information asymmetry through reductions in analyst coverage, indicate a quick and sustained increase in scientific publications from treated firms relative to the number of publications from control firms. The treatment effects are concentrated among firms with higher information asymmetry and lower investor demand, firms with greater financial constraints, and firms with lower proprietary costs. We do not find evidence of changes in financial disclosure, nor do we find changes in patenting. Results from ordinary least squares regressions show that scientific publications by firms are positively associated with investor attention toward those firms. We complement these results with qualitative evidence from conference calls. Our results highlight the limitations and tradeoffs R&D firms face in their financial market disclosure policies
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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