Many public service organizations engage in commercialization, or market‐oriented strategies designed to generate non‐public revenue for the organization. Managers and policymakers sometimes choose to “buy” these commercialization strategies by setting up separate organizations, ostensibly to avoid inefficiencies associated with coordinating market activity within an organization designed for public service. Using a synthetic control approach, this study measures the effect on efficiency of a commercialization strategy in the tech transfer domain by leveraging the spin‐off of a large public tech transfer enterprise. I find that the spin‐off decreased revenue and licensing activity, and I find no meaningful effect on contract costs. My findings suggest that government entities in pursuit of revenue and efficiency gains should not consider “buying” commercialization strategies a magic bullet for efficiency gains.

中文翻译：

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实现或购买商业化：一种综合控制方法


许多公共服务组织从事商业化或市场导向的战略，旨在为组织创造非公共收入。管理者和政策制定者有时选择通过建立单独的组织来“购买”这些商业化战略，表面上是为了避免与协调公共服务组织内的市场活动相关的低效率。本研究使用综合控制方法，通过利用大型公共技术转让企业的分拆来衡量技术转让领域商业化战略对效率的影响。我发现分拆减少了收入和许可活动，并且我发现对合同成本没有有意义的影响。我的研究结果表明，追求收入和效率提升的政府实体不应将“购买”商业化战略视为提高效率的灵丹妙药。