Working Paper: NBER ID: w14057
Authors: Albert N. Link; Christopher J. Ruhm
Abstract: We offer empirical information on the correlates of commercialization activity for research projects funded through the U.S. National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award program. Based on this analysis we suggest possible recommendations for improving this aspect of the performance of NIH's SBIR program. Specifically, we estimate a model of the probability of commercialization as a function of the project's ability to attract additional developmental funding, along with other control variables. We find that additional developmental funding from non-SBIR federal sources and from own internal sources are important predictors of commercialization success, relatively more so than additional developmental funding from venture capitalists. We also find, among other things, that university involvement in the underlying research increases the probability of commercialization. Thus, these factors should be considered by NIH when making awards, if increased commercialization is an objective.
Keywords: Commercialization; NIH; SBIR; Funding; Innovation
JEL Codes: I28; O38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| additional developmental funding (O19) | probability of commercialization (R33) |
| non-SBIR federal sources funding (L39) | probability of commercialization (R33) |
| internal sources funding (O16) | probability of commercialization (R33) |
| venture capital funding (G24) | probability of commercialization (R33) |
| university involvement (I23) | probability of commercialization (R33) |