اثرات اقتصادی از تحقیقات: شواهد برای انتقال دانش از طریق مهاجرت دانشمندان

The paper argues that a substantial proportion of the wider economic benefits to society from publicly-funded basic research is associated with scientists’ migration into the commercial sector of the innovation system. Rejecting a reduction of the research process to the propositional knowledge it produces, a set of hypotheses on the value of different types of knowledge is derived. The hypotheses are tested with empirical data obtained from scientists formerly employed by the Max Planck Society (MPS), one of the main organisations for basic research in the German innovation system. Findings indicate that rather than applying latest theoretical insights, scientists mainly transfer elements of knowledge that underlie complex problem-solving strategies in basic research.

The view that basic research potentially leads to a variety of economic benefits to society is not generally disputed. Whereas, early conventional accounts focus on how the results of basic research—as codified in scientific publications—travelled across time and space to eventually become incorporated in commercial innovations, more recent studies have pointed to additional mechanisms through which basic research supports innovation (for an overview, see Salter and Martin, 2001). This paper conceptualises and presents empirical evidence specifically on one of these mechanisms, namely the migration of scientists from basic research into industry. It argues that whenever such migration takes place, it facilitates the transfer of the knowledge scientists previously developed and accumulated in the context of their research programmes. Even though the type of knowledge transferred and the effects this has naturally differs with the scientific background and the destination of each respective scientist, some important regularities are pointed out. Whilst the potential effects arising from migration are generally acknowledged in conceptual treatments, there is a lack of empirical studies on the subject. The paper is an attempt to contribute to filling this gap by taking the obvious step: going out and searching for scientists who at some point of their careers migrated into the commercial sector.

The empirical findings presented on embodied knowledge transfers provide new evidence on the contribution of basic research to national innovative capacity. Most importantly, the confirmation of Hypotheses 1–4 substantiates and supports the claim that important socio-economic benefits of basic research accrue through the embodied knowledge transfers associated with scientists’ migration into the commercial sector. It was shown that survey respondents utilise their knowledge in the context of a wide variety of functions. The majority of respondents initially moved into industrial R&D departments. While this is a common career start, it is often followed by other functions, mainly production, management and marketing. Activities in R&D were differentiated from other functions in that specific scientific knowledge was rated more highly in absolute terms, while the relative importance of the six types of knowledge introduced was remarkably stable across functions. Consequently, the evidence demonstrates that the benefits from migration are by no means confined to R&D, as the knowledge acquired in basic research is reported to be valuable in many different destinations.