Star scientists versus interdisciplinary scientists: exploring the distinct patterns of engagement in university-industry interactions

Trabajo presentado a la DRUID15 Conference: "The Relevance of Innovation”, celebrada en Roma (Italia) del 15 al 17 de junio de 2015.This paper investigates two facets of the science-base industry linkages. First, we examine whether interdisciplinary scientists exhibit a distinct propensity to interact with industry as compared to star scientists. Second, we investigate whether the effects of scientific impact and interdisciplinarity on the propensity of scientists to interact with industry are contingent on the particular mode of university-industry interaction. We distinguish between three modes of university-industry interaction: entrepreneurial, co-production and response modes. We find that the effects of scientific impact on university-industry interactions are non-linear and largely dependent on the interaction mode. In contrast, we find that interdisciplinary research is positively associated with all modes of university-industry interaction. Additionally, we find that the effects of scientific impact and interdisciplinary research are moderated by two individual attributes: perceived social impact of research and previous experience of scientists in industry interactions. Our hypotheses are tested on a sample of 1.213 scientists from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), the largest public research organization in Spain, covering a wide range of scientific fields, including physics, engineering, biomedicine, social sciences and humanities. We combine primary data from a large scale survey, bibliometric data on the publications of scientists, and administrative data on the past interactions with industry in which scientists have been involved.Peer reviewe