Panel: Opportunities & Methods to Encourage more Women Toward Research Commercialization

Recent reports and analyses have identified that women tend to commercialize research and engage with industry/entrepreneurship at a much lower rate than men. A multitude of programs exist to help researchers transition from an academic laboratory into business ventures around a particular technology. Universities have personnel and support programs to help guide patent applications, form business entities, seek early stage funding, and network with entrepreneurship incubators and programs. This paper seeks to demystify this process such that more women are encouraged to further develop their intellectual capital and pursue commercialization ventures. The information included herein is compiled from panel members, is introductory in nature and utilized as a preliminary, enabling resource. Introduction This paper and corresponding panel was organized based on the premise that, while data shows women engage in technology transfer at a lower rate than men, direct discussion of this issue will encourage and empower more women to commercialize their research. This effort brings together individuals with experience at all stages of the technology transfer and commercialization process to talk about: a) The current disparities in technology transfer by gender b) Existing programs which strive to correct the disparity c) The process of moving research from the lab to commercialization d) Resources that are available to fund and guide the technology transfer process Panelists include Babs Carryer, Director of Faculty Development and Training at NCIIA, a national organization focused on university entrepreneurship; Abby Thompson, a Research Associate at Mississippi State University’s technology transfer office; Adrienne Minerick, a chemical engineering professor at Michigan Technological University; Mary Raber, Director of student enterprise programs at Michigan Technological University; and Louise Dunlap, a political entrepreneur in public policy. Each panelists provides unique perspectives on approaches, pathways, and challenges associated with commercializing university technologies. The paper includes a brief review on the disparities in technology transfer by gender, followed by responses from each of the panelists in the three later categories above. The goal of this paper is to archive the wisdom from this session for future reference. Disparities in technology transfer by gender Gender gaps have been noted in the technology transfer arena . Stephan concludes that, “women are less likely to disclose than are men, less likely to patent, and less likely to engage in entrepreneurial activity, such as starting a company or serving on a scientific advisory board,” although rigorous quantification of the bias was left for future studies . In the medical school research community, women were as likely as men to report inventions although women disclosed fewer inventions . Haeussler hypothesized that women will engage less in P ge 23955.4 commercialization and after analyzing data determined that male scientists were 8% more likely than women to patent an idea and men were 4% more likely to found a company compared to females. A difference was not found between consulting rates , which to many suggests that networks do not differ greatly between the genders . Babson’s Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Reports on Women and Entrepreneurship surmises that women have less tolerance for risk. Babson’s 2011 US report on entrepreneurship found that young men had “higher perceptions about opportunities, confidence in capabilities, affiliations with entrepreneurs and risk–taking propensity” compared with young females. Researching women entrepreneurs and their challenges in getting funded, venture capitalist, Cindy Padnos, found that gender and other factors affects the decision of who invests in who: “Called homophily, this tendency refers to the selection of people based on characteristics such as gender...Homophily permeates all levels of equity investment.” She concludes that men invest in men, leaving women to find women investors who will listen to, and invest in, their story. Since women investors are fewer than men this adds to the gap. Studies from the Kauffman Foundation have found that “Despite recent gains, women still lag behind men on key measures of startup activity.” Kauffman cited that 5.65% of women faculty obtain patents on their research, as opposed to 13% of men faculty and, furthermore, that only 6.5% of women faculty are Science Advisory Board member of high-tech firms, compared with 93.5% of men faculty. Differences in women engaging in technology transfer have been attributed to fewer opportunities at earlier career stages . Also, the hierarchical academic structure is thought to contribute to lower commercial engagement by women. Another theory is related to accumulative advantage, which suggests, “increasing returns to success are driven by peer evaluations based on reputation” and individual university cultures can influence behaviors greatly . Stephan and El-Ganainy broke these attributes into ‘factors affecting supply’ of women entrepreneurs and ‘factors affecting demand.’ The supply aspect of the study identified gender differences in attitudes toward risk, competition, selling the science, type of research, and geographic location, while the demand aspect identified venture capital preferences and gender discounting . It was noted that many commercialization opportunities arise from personalized invitations from others, but the work was unable to discern whether fewer women were asked or whether fewer women took advantage of such opportunities. Murray and Graham had documented women who were invited to, but later excluded from the process . Jha and Welch examined collaborative relationships and found that women-women partnerships tended to be stronger and more prevalent than men-women partnerships in collaborative science. Extension of this concept to programs to increase technology transfer and commercialization has occurred as discussed in the ‘existing programs striving to correct gender disparities’ section. Attributes of those who engage in technology transfer Irrespective of gender differences, technology transfer is an activity within which few academic researchers engage. Hence, there is much to be learned from literature studying attributes for those who do engage in some form of technology transfer from patenting to consulting to full commercialization. As an indicator of the importance placed on commercialization, prior to 1980, fewer than 20 universities had technology transfer offices; such offices now exist on P ge 23955.5 almost all research campuses . Academics have largely valued publications over patents 10, 12 though this varies by fields, and patents and patent searching behaviors need further study . Other work found that productivity in patenting was not related to commercialization success; instead, faculty need entrepreneurial spirit . University and commercial science is now viewed as largely connected . Goethner et. al. determined that the attitudes and perceived control of the process by academic scientists determined entrepreneurial intentions. Both economic and physiological perceptions influenced the transition from intentions to behavior in academic entrepreneurship . Grandi and Grimaldi identified that Business Ideas (BI) Market Attractiveness and BI Articulation were two key factors influencing performance in academic spin-off companies. Market attractiveness was primarily positive if the academic entrepreneur interacted heavily with non-academic partners or agents (i.e. expanding knowledge & experience) while articulation was primarily positive if the academic founders had more experience or assembled a diverse, experienced team . Two key statements made in the paper relate directly to the target audience of this panel and paper, “Academic would-be entrepreneurs should be aware of the importance of keeping their eyes open to the outside, of monitoring market trends and requirements, and of communicating with external actors. These factors are important for academics, some of whom show the tendency to interact only with other scholars and colleagues, and run the risk of becoming isolated and not realizing the potential applications of the technologies that they develop” . Existing programs striving to correct gender disparities As a means to counter the gender disparities in technology transfer and commercialization, a number of national programs have been developed. The Ohio State University sponsored a ‘Reach for Commercialization: A Workshop for Women Faculty and PostDocs in STEM’ in late September 2012 as part of their ADVANCE grant from NSF. Entrepreneur magazine featured their first annual entrepreneurial women to watch in 2013 . Support groups and visibility for women entrepreneurs is increasing including a wide variety of online articles and educational resources. Four women start a business for every five men, which has been increasing . Nonprofit organizations also exist including the Michigan Association for Female Entrepreneurs (MAFE) . One of the many organizations that focus on women in technology is the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), led by Lucy Sanders. Among other research, support and services, NCWIT offers a series of interviews with female entrepreneurs called “Entrepreneurial Heroes” which feature women founders of high-tech businesses. Another organization is The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, which was founded in 1997 by renowned computer scientist Anita Borg, PhD. Internationally, surveys and programs exist in the Middle East , United Kingdom 25 and in Europe . In the Middle East, disparities in information and commercialization technology were identified as the greatest barrier to entrepreneurial engagement and so programs to address this are underway . Empowering women via this mechanism was also