From separate systems to a hybrid order : accumulative advantage across public and private science at Research One universities

Drawing on 18 years of panel data for the 89 most research-intensive US universities, this paper examines changing relationships between commercial and academic systems for the dissemination and use of new scientific findings. Increased patenting and commercial engagement on US campuses, I argue, has dramatically altered the rules that govern inter-university competition. From once separate systems with distinct stratification orders, commercial and academic standards for success have become integrated into a hybrid regime where achievement in one realm is dependent upon success in the other. Using observed variable structural equation models, I establish that the integration of public and private science occurred in progressive stages between 1981 and 1998. The implications of that periodization for organizational mobility in a hybrid academic/commercial stratification system are discussed. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.