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

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.