They invent (and patent?) like they breathe: what are their incentives to do so? Short tales and lessons from researchers in a public research organisation

Two major and complementary transformations have occurred in the world of public research organisations in the past two decades. Instruments of intellectual property (first and foremost the patent) have disseminated in many domains of research while collaborations with industrial firms have grown substantially. Strategies have been designed in PROs to accompany and stimulate the researchers in their new mission: the transfer of knowledge and technologies to firms. This paper investigates on an empirical basis the fact that researchers’ inventiveness could to a certain extent be independent from private economic incentives. It concludes by opening some analytical perspectives about the pros and cons of PROs’ knowledge and technology transfer strategies and by suggesting that the dominant model could well look inappropriate in some respects.