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Patent Related Indicators for Assessing Knowledge-Generating Institutions: Towards a Contextualised Approach

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Abstract

This contribution aims at examining the extent to which patent related indicators are relevant for shedding light on the notion of excellence within knowledge-generating institutions. Traditionally, excellence has been looked upon as the ability to create interesting and valuable new scientific concepts, theories and data. From such a perspective, scientific excellence can be assessed through scientometric measures of publication output and impact. The recent interest in the ‘entrepreneurial’ phenomenon within knowledge-generating institutes justifies efforts to examine the relevancy of broadening the set of indicators used to assess such institutions into the direction of entrepreneurial excellence. In this paper we will examine the relevancy of using patent data in order to delineate such additional, more entrepreneurial oriented, indicators. The arguments and findings presented in this respect will lead us to a plea for the use of these indicators in a contextualized manner.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Division INCENTIM Fac, ETEW K.U.Leuven, Naamsestraat 69, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Bart Van Looy, Julie Callaert, Koenraad Debackere & Arnold Verbeek

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  1. Bart Van Looy
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  2. Julie Callaert
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  3. Koenraad Debackere
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  4. Arnold Verbeek
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Van Looy, B., Callaert, J., Debackere, K. et al. Patent Related Indicators for Assessing Knowledge-Generating Institutions: Towards a Contextualised Approach. The Journal of Technology Transfer 28, 53–61 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021630803637

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