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Combining the production and the valorization of academic research: A qualitative investigation of enacted mechanisms. J. Callaert, B. Van Looy, D. Foray, K. Debackere Discussant: B. Goldfarb. What they did. A qualitative study of research scientists at EPFL
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Combining the production and the valorization of academic research: A qualitative investigation of enacted mechanisms. J. Callaert, B. Van Looy, D. Foray, K. Debackere Discussant:B. Goldfarb
What they did • A qualitative study of research scientists at EPFL • Find that the researchers do not perceive any conflict between commercialization and production of scientific research • Not that they are complements and substitutes, but that they are the SAME THING!
Who determines the agenda? • Is necessity the mother of all invention? • (i.e, pull from industry) • Are all inventions necessitated by the mothers? • (i.e., push from academics) • Are mothers inventions necessities? • (i.e., some mixture) • Evidence suggests some of each.
Kudos! • There is a great need for this type of work! • This looks very promising!
First an offering • Let’s avoid discussing the known limitations of qualitative research, and instead explore its benefits
Nevertheless • Authors acknowledge that Basic-Industry money result may be an artifact of the Swiss system or EPFL. • Convenience sample requires elaboration about generalizability.
Clarifications • Who coded responses into the different categories? • Better description of the types of valorization activities in question • First draft effect: • The empirical support of the team-size premises was weak.
Concerns: • The George Bush effect: • Why should we believe what they say, as opposed to what they do?
Finally, a critique for everyone (including myself) • Scientific value (i.e., what gets published) is determined by scientists • Do scientists now value stuff in Pasteur’s quadrant to the exclusion of promising areas of research – and hence shift into this quadrant? • Neither the qualitative nor quantitative methods here can pick this up.