Exploring scientific productivity and transfer activities: Evidence from Argentinean ICT research groups

In recent years, literature has paid particular attention to analyzing different sources of knowledge as determinants of innovation. Much of the research interest has focused on discussing the role of Public Research Organizations (PRO) in the generation and transfer of knowledge. This paper has two main objectives. Firstly, we explore the factors related to the performance of ICT research groups from Argentinean PRO in terms of both technology transfer and scientific productivity. Secondly, we analyze the relation between groups' scientific productivity and their technology transfer performance. Our motivation for considering these two dimensions of performance is to analyze comparatively the factors associated with both performance indicators, based on the idea that in Argentina the research groups that are more orientated towards technological transfer are different from those focused on scientific activities stemming from the evidence of some characteristics of Latin American innovation systems and the recent dynamic of ICT in Argentina. The empirical analysis is based on information gathered from 314 Argentine ICT research groups. Results show that scientific productivity is positively related to the proportion of PhD holders, the linkages with other institutions for R&D and the funding coming from national scientific institutions - CONICET and ANPCyT-. Results also evidence that technology transfer activities are associated with linkages that groups hold with other institutions of technological developments. Instead, the greater the funding that groups receive from universities, the lower their transfer activities will be. Finally, the results not only suggest the absence of the linear model of innovation, but the existence of a completely opposite relationship: scientific productivity is negatively associated with groups' technological performance.