Human Embryonic Stem Cell (Hesc) research can contribute to life science and medical technology in both academic and commercial ways; at the same time it requires collaboration among various institutions in terms of the size of R&D fund, the incentives to do research and the complexity of underlying knowledge. Recently, policy makers have got interested in collaborative research between public and private institutions as a way of conducting basic science. However, there has been a heated debate on whether the participation of private firms in basic science could effectively improve research productivity. Specifically, in one hand, these private firms tend to abandon basic research too early if they cannot expect to earn positive profits within a short period of time and to keep their findings secret instead of sharing them; such tendency can delay the accumulation of scientific knowledge and undermine the productivity of basic science research. On the other hand, because of their emphasizing market performance, for-profit firms are more likely to try innovative experiments or approaches, which could improve research productivity. Although such different opinions suggest very different science policies, few empirical studies have been conducted to analyze whether the participation of private companies would be effective or not, and if they need to participate, how and in what stage private firms need to do so in order to generate scientific results productively.

Using publication data on Hesc, this study examines the impact of collaboration between public and private institutions on productivity of scientific research. Specifically, this study develops several variables measuring quality, influence, originality and diversity of research output. By using these measures and econometric approach, this study empirically analyze the effect of collaborative research and participation of private firms on research productivity.

Results are as follows: the Hesc research papers from collaboration are more likely to be published in prestigious journals (quality), referenced more frequently in subsequent papers (influence). However, collaborative research does not seem to explore new research topics (originality) or to provide research outcomes that generates more subsequent studies (diversity). When private firms participate in Hesc research, few or even negative impacts on research outcomes are observed. For instance, evidence shows that the research teams with private firms tend to generate articles with less quality, less influence, and less originality compared to research teams without private firms. The only case that the participation of private firms produces productive results is when private firms and hospitals are teamed up; this type of research team seems to produce research outcomes that generate subsequent studies with various topics.

The results of this study imply that the participation of private firms in basic science needs to be considered in a very careful manner; when a scientific field with high potential for commercializa- tion has yet to accumulate fundamental findings enough, we need to enhance collaboration among universities, public research institutions and hospitals at the early stage of research; we begin to involve private firms only after a sufficient amount of fundamental findings is accumulated. Finally, results of this study imply that research partners of public sector need to be broadened to include research hospitals and other various institutions, other than private firms.

발간사
요 약

제1장 서 론

제2장 문헌연구
　제1절 과학지식 생산과 협력
　제2절 협력연구와 과학연구의 생산성
　제3절 인간 배아줄기세포 연구분야와 협력연구

제3장 데이터

제4장 Hesc 연구 관련 협력적 지식 생산 현황
　제1절 협력적 지식 생산 추이
　　1. 공동저자
　　2. 논문당 저자 수
　　3. 기관 내 및 기관 간 협력
　　4. 국내 협력 및 국제 협력
　　5. 소 결
　제2절 기관 유형별 협력
　　1. 논문당 기관 유형별 참여
　　2. 기관 유형별 협력

제5장 협력과 과학지식의 생산성 분석
　제1절 분석 가설 및 모형
　　1. 분석 가설
　　2. 분석모형
　제2절 분석 결과
　　1. 기초 통계량
　　2. 실증분석 결과

제6장 결론 및 정책적 시사점

참고문헌
ABSTRACT