学术创业对高校教师科研产出的影响效应研究——知识探索的中介作用

Research on the effect of academic entrepreneurship on faculty research output:The mediating role of knowledge exploration

学术创业已成为科技成果转化的重要形式之一。如何权衡学术创业对科学研究的利弊影响逐渐成为学术界的关注焦点。基于知识探索理论,以上海市5所教育部直属高校的7641名在岗教师为研究对象,多源匹配教师的科研成果及学术创业活动数据,构建了泊松和Tobit回归模型,分析学术创业对教师科研产出的影响效应,并以知识探索为中介探究学术创业效应的内在传导机制。研究结果表明:教师的学术创业状态显著促进了其对新研究领域的知识探索;知识探索对教师基础研究产出的数量和应用研究的质量水平具有直接的积极影响,并在学术创业与基础研究产出影响力和应用研究产出数量的正向关系中发挥了部分中介作用。高校应关注学术创业的互利和挤出效应,基于组织愿景合理引导教师的创业行为。建立学术创业相关的配套政策,完善多目标导向的教师绩效评价体系,促进科学研究与成果转化的协同有序发展。

Academic entrepreneurship has become one of the most prevalent forms of science and technology transformation.With the implementation of the innovative national strategy,more and more university faculty are responding to the national call to participate in academic entrepreneurial activities.Regarding specific transfer channels,university faculty members are increasingly involved in the most extreme form of entrepreneurial behaviors through working as founders or shareholders in a for-profit firm.Academic entrepreneurship,as a bridge between scientific research and production practice,provides favorable conditions for the transformation of scholars'achievements.At the same time,however,concerns about the negative impact of academic entrepreneurship on scientific research cannot be neglected.Therefore,clarifying the inner development mechanism of the effect between academic entrepreneurship and scientific research is a prerequisite for improving the governance mechanism of academic entrepreneurship in universities.In order to explore the impact mechanism of academic entrepreneurship,the individual information of 7641 faculty members affiliated with five universities in Shanghai was collected.Based on this,we built a unique unbalanced panel dataset covering the records of their research achievements and the records of their academic entrepreneurial activities.The Poisson and Tobit regression models were constructed to analyze the effect of academic entrepreneurship on faculty members'research output.Due to differences in scientific research in terms of innovation paradigms,knowledge disclosure priorities,reliance on cumulative knowledge,and faculty role identity,we estimated journal publications and invention patents of faculty members separately as a reflection of their level of basic and applied research performance.To explore the internal transmission mechanism of the impact effect of academic entrepreneurship,the mediating role of knowledge exploration for the effect of academic entrepreneurship on research performance was analyzed.The results of the study show that faculty members’real status of academic entrepreneurship significantly promotes knowledge exploration in new disciplines.The direct effect of knowledge exploration on faculty members’basic research output and the quality of applied research is observed,while it plays a mediating role for the impact of academic entrepreneurship on the impact of basic research and the quantity of applied research.Therefore,we suggest that academic entrepreneurship does strengthen industry-academia collaboration and knowledge reorganization,which plays a significant and positive role in promoting the innovation value of faculty research output.In addition,there is a crowding-out effect of entrepreneurial activities on faculty time and effort devoted to basic research,but this effect is only reflected in the count of journal publications.The influence of academic entrepreneurship remains significant and positive for invention patents as a source of technology to derive corporate innovation.According to this study,we propose that both faculty members and universities should be careful consideration of both the mutual benefits and crowding-out effects associated with academic entrepreneurship.The university administrators should rationally guide faculty members'entrepreneurial behavior in accordance with the vision of the organization.Several supporting policies are needed to support academic entrepreneurship,improve the multi-goal performance evaluation system for faculty,and encourage the synergistic and orderly development of scientific research and academic entrepreneurship.