Since 1963, the rates of commercialization of ideas by women and African Americans have lagged those of U.S. inventors. Although the gap has closed at the largest publicly-traded firms, it is still wide for broad commercialization activity and much wider for patent activity. The research focuses identifying the sources of breaks in the progression from basic research to invention to commercialization of ideas. The analysis combines surveys of women scientists with unique new data on women and African American inventors to explain differential commercialization and patenting patterns. The analysis is enhanced by targeted interviews and site visits to firms and organizations, including in the government sector.
Intellectual Merit This research extends the new and growing literature on the factors affecting knowledge creation and use. Little research is done on long-term commercialization patterns and on these groups and has never been systematically done on African Americans. A particularly novel contribution is the expansion and combination of data sets that can be used both to address the main research question and related questions, such as the long-term entrepreneurial and commercialization patterns of these groups and more generally.
Broader Impacts This research provides an important public good - additional data - to researchers and new analysis on groups that are underrepresented in the sciences and among patent-holders and entrepreneurs. The results are integrated into the course material in the regular course of training graduate and undergraduate students, especially macroeconomics. Researchers at museums and libraries have expressed interest in disseminating findings from this research through their educational programs related to science and invention.
