Evaluating and comparing the university performance in knowledge utilization for patented inventions

Although universities have played an important role in knowledge creation, it is also of concern to see how universities perform in knowledge utilization. In the present article, an effective approach is proposed to evaluate and compare university performance in knowledge utilization for patented inventions. Growth trajectories of the cumulative patent citations to scientific publications produced by individual universities are analyzed by using latent growth modeling. Moreover, we examine how the utilization of scientific knowledge created in 1995 and 2005 is affected by research impact and university–industry collaboration among the universities in Europe, North America, and East Asia. The results indicate that not all top 300 research universities in the world perform well in knowledge utilization for patented inventions. Some policy implications are discussed.