Reaching for the stars. The Contingent Performance Effects of Basic Research Collaboration between Firms and University Star Scientists

Prior research has characterized star scientists as extraordinary contributors to their domain and carriers of extensive human and social capital. This paper explores the role of these university star scientists as firms’ key partners in basic research. We explore the conditions under which these collaborations in basic research can improve the innovative performance of the collaborating firms. We analyse patent and publication data of 137 R&D intensive European, American and Japanese pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms from 1995 to 2002 and find that the benefits of basic research collaborations with academic star scientists are not that straightforward as prior research has suggested. Our results indicate that firms can only realize a significant performance premium from star-firm collaborations if the star scientist also performs applied research with the focal firm and if the star scientist collaborates exclusive with the focal firm in both basic and applied research. Our findings support the benefit of basic research collaboration with star scientists, but emphasize the key role of collaboration management.status: accepte