The impacts of foreignness and cultural distance on commercialization of patents

Foreign-born academic scientists have been consistently shown to be more productive than the native-born in the United States with regard to research and patents. However, no study has yet analyzed whether the foreign-born are also more likely to commercialize their research after having it patented. This paper utilizes a 2010 survey of academic inventors to analyze whether a selected patent had been licensed or whether technology transfer offices were currently working with a company. Additional analysis was conducted to understand where patents were held (whether by a private company, spinoff, government, or university) for those patents that had been successfully licensed in the past. Findings show that the foreign-born are generally less likely to have their patents licensed or to be working with technology transfer offices, though the significance of the results are mixed. In addition, the foreign-born are more likely to have their licenses held by private companies, while the native-born are more likely to work with spinoffs. These results indicate that technology transfer offices can better serve a key part of the academic workforce.