A bibliometric overview of university-business collaboration between 1980 and 2016

Abstract

Bibliometrics is a research field that analyses bibliographic material from a quantitative point of view. Aiming at providing a comprehensive overview, this study scrutinises the academic literature in university business collaboration and technology transfer research for the period post the Bayh-Dole Act (1980-2016). The study employs the Web of Science as the main database from where information is collected. Bibliometric indicators such as number of publications, citations, productivity, and the H-index are used to analyse the results. The main findings are displayed in the form of tables and are further discussed. The focus is on the identification of the most relevant journals in this area, the most cited papers, most prolific authors, leading institutions, and countries. The results show that the USA, England, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands are highly active in this area. Scientific production tends to fall within the research areas of business and economics, engineering or public administration, and is mainly published in journals such as Research Policy, Technovation and Journal of Technology Transfer.