Commercialisation time and licensing performance of university inventions: the moderating role of university inventors

This paper examines the relationship between time and performance in the commercialisation of university-originated inventions. Focusing on the commercialisation time, defined as the time taken for a lab-scale invention to be developed for commercial sale, we investigate whether there is any systematic association between commercialisation time and the licensing revenue generated by university-originated inventions. Analysing a sample of inventions from Stanford University, we find that both pre- and postlicensing time of commercialisation are negatively associated with its licensing revenue. We also find that the negative relationship between the postlicensing time of commercialisation and licensing revenue is contingent on the inventor’s orientation towards university-industry collaboration. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings as well as future avenues of research in technology commercialisation.