Measuring the Social Value of Innovation

Research universities have historically been and continue to be the production sites of knowledge and discoveries with the potential for improving myriads of societal, ecological, and economical conditions. There exists a related, established argument that the transfer of knowledge and technology from campus laboratories to society creates a greater social return on public, private, and state investments made in university research. However, no models cpable of forecasting and/or demonstrating the social and ecological gains made through university knowledge transfer have been institutionalized across the higher education field. This volume presents a series of perspectives that evaluate the merits of and potential for establishing institutionalized social valuation protocols within university settings. The volume opens with a comprehensive overview of te existing literature that addresses issues related to assessing the social value of university innovations. The first section provides sociological, organizational, and economic perspectives on issues informing the forecasting and/or demonstrating the social value of university innovations. The second section explores potential matrics and measures for eiter forecasting or demonstrating the social and economic value of university innovations. The third section concludes by considering issues of governance over and the organizational position of institutionalized protocols for forecasting and demonstrating the social and economic value of university innovations within the academy. Book jacket.