Elsevier

Research Policy

Volume 44, Issue 6, July 2015, Pages 1176-1191
Research Policy

The engagement gap:: Exploring gender differences in University – Industry collaboration activities

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2015.01.014Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • We examine differences between men and women academics in their propensity to academic engagement with industry.

  • We find that women engage less and in different ways than their male colleagues.

  • These differences are mitigated by the presence of other women in the related scientific discipline and social support mechanisms in the workplace, but not by the presence of women in their local work context.

  • Implications for policy to support women in academic careers are assessed.

Abstract

In recent years, the debate about the marginality of women in academic science has been extended to academics’ engagement with industry and their commercial efforts. Analyzing multi-source data for a large sample of UK physical and engineering scientists and employing a matching technique, this study suggests women academics to engage less and in different ways than their male colleagues of similar status in collaboration activities with industry. We then argue – and empirical assess – these differences can be mitigated by the social context in which women scientists operate, including the presence of women in the local work setting and their wider discipline, and the institutional support for women’s careers in their organization. We explore the implications of these findings for policies to support women’s scientific and technical careers and engagement with industry.

JEL classification

O31
J16

Keywords

Gender
Academic-engagement with industry
University-industry collaboration
Marginality
Women in science
Semi-parametric matching

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