Academic commercialization and changing nature of academic cooperation

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Recent economic policies emphasize the role of academic science in technological innovation and economic growth and encourage universities and individual academics to engage in commercial activities. In this trend of academic commercialization, a growing concern has been expressed that its potential incompatibility with the traditional norms of open science could undermine the cooperative climate in academia. Drawing on the framework of evolution of the cooperation, this study examines the changing nature of academic cooperation under the current policy trend. In an ideal state of open science, academics are supposed to cooperate gratis and unconditionally. However, results predict that the commercialized regime could compromise underlying mechanisms of cooperation and allow defectors to prevail. As the trend further grows, academics would become more demanding of direct reward in exchange for cooperation, and they would refrain from engaging in cooperation but would prefer to work independently. Some interventions (e.g., centralized rewarding) could mitigate the problem but require delicate system design.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)513-532
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Evolutionary Economics
Volume25
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015 Apr
Externally publishedYes

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Business Administration
  • Social Psychology

Free keywords

  • academic commercialization
  • academic entrepreneurship
  • evolution of cooperation
  • evolutionary game theory
  • indirect reciprocity
  • open science
  • social norms
  • I23
  • L26
  • O33
  • C73
  • O38

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