Institutional and organizational factors associated to academic patenting in a Mexican university: Teams´ trajectories, networks and performance

This paper explores the main characteristics of the most productive academic teams, when productivity is defined in terms of the number of granted patents. The Metropolitan Autonomous University is the fourth patent producer in the country, among academic institutions. Institutional arrangements and university policies configure a complex set of incentives and restrictions that affect patenting. Institutional arrangements and policies are used to explain groups´ trajectories, composition and performance. The hypothesis assumes that better performance is associated with group characteristics such as: Density, reciprocity, centrality, internal and external links, students´ participation, publications, industry links, and financial support. University patent information and professors´ curriculum vitae were used to characterize and to identify groups through network analysis. Group leaders and team members were interviewed in order to explore their trajectories and challenges. Also the interviewees discussed the role of institutional and organizational factors related to group performance. Results show that industry links and student participation at the patenting group are important characteristics related to performance. Also, it has been found that leader orientation to risk could explain the network dynamic and industry links. The more resources generated by the group, the greater the independence from organizational formal structures.