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Matching Firms and Scientists: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial

Last registered on February 16, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Matching Firms and Scientists: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012992
Initial registration date
February 13, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
February 16, 2024, 3:56 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Croatia
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Alexandra Avdeenko
Affiliation
World Bank
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Namrata Kala
PI Affiliation
MIT
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PI Name
Rajesh Chandy
PI Affiliation
LBS
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PI Name
Francisco Campos
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Leonardo Iacovone
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-02-14
End date
2026-02-14
Keywords
Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
business-science collaboration; matchmaking; patents; firms & productivity; innovation; R&D; IPR; green; AI; scientists
JEL code(s)
C93 Field Experiments; I23 Research Institutions; O3 Innovation; Q55 Technological Innovation
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Business-science collaboration is essential for fostering innovation and economic development, particularly in rapidly evolving sectors like AI and Energy Efficiency and Sustainability. We study how to enhance the collaboration between firms and scientists given persistent barriers such as information frictions, behavioral biases, and high transaction costs. To address existing challenges, the research investigates the potential of matchmaking interventions. Specifically, it evaluates the SCINERGY '24 Pilot in Croatia, designed to match firms with scientists possessing relevant expertise and provide comprehensive support throughout their collaborative endeavors. Matchmakers facilitate meetings, offer guidance, and assist in knowledge transfer on topics such as IP regulations and partnership agreements. Collaborative projects between matched pairs of scientists and businesses are undertaken during the matchmaking phase. 100 firms are randomly selected for support and 110 are in the control group. The difference in performance of the two groups of firms over time will be investigated by capturing differences in collaboration rates/ fields/ quality of collaboration, innovation outcomes, and firm growth. The study shall help improving the understanding of factors driving successful business-science partnerships. It shall offer causal and descriptive insights on the potential of interventions that enhance collaboration in academia and industry and through that on their potential to foster innovation and economic development, while also discerning differential effects for different firm types (e.g., w/o prior experience in collaborating with academia or w/o clear research support needs).
External Link(s)
Official registration website to the pilot

Registration Citation

Citation
Avdeenko, Alexandra et al. 2024. "Matching Firms and Scientists: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial." AEA RCT Registry. February 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12992-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Partner

Name
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
Type
URL
https://www.fer.unizg.hr/en
Name
Ministry of Science and Education
Type
government
URL
https://mzo.gov.hr/en
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention is specifically designed to address the challenge of fostering effective collaboration between firms and scientists. Despite the potential benefits of collaboration, firms often struggle to access relevant scientific expertise, while scientists may encounter difficulties in commercializing their research findings. We investigate the effectiveness of matchmaking interventions in bridging this gap. We plan to examine whether and how matchmakers facilitate connections between firms and scientists, improving communication, trust-building, and supporting cooperation agreements. The intervention consists of pre-selecting and introducing relevant potential partners and supporting them in the generation of collaborative first projects and partnerships.
Intervention (Hidden)
The matchmaking pilot is implemented by Nuqleus at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb. SCINERGY ’24 is designed to connect the scientific and business community in a number of in-person workshops. Firms can stay informed about the latest scientific trends and technologies and together with scientists explore available scientific equipment and its potential applications. Participating firms gain targeted connections with scientists across a range of fields, including artificial intelligence, energy, electrical engineering, biotechnology, and more. The pilot provides guidance and support for initiating collaborations with these scientists, assisting with communication, and offering legal support. The matched pairs of scientists and business shall then be encouraged and supported to work on concrete pilots, incl. to test and certify new products and services. They are supported through intensive handholding and knowledge transfer on key questions related to IP regulations, partnership agreements, and certification processes, amongst others. As part of the pilot, Nuqleus also supports the teams in the identification of suitable financing options for collaborations. 100 firms are selected for the pilot. They pay no participation fee.
Intervention Start Date
2024-02-14
Intervention End Date
2024-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Business-science collaboration agreements signed
R&D grant application submitted for funding
Firm's utilization of research infrastructures
Self-reported gains from collaboration
Percent of revenues attributable to innovation in the last 6 months
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Full-time employees
Annual firm total income
Areas of R&D collaboration chosen
Patents (yes/no)
Trademarks (yes/no)
Joint research applications in progress
Planned and actual follow-up collaborations with same/different scientists


Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experimental design will be a simple design with one main treatment arm and one control arm. The main treatment will be a composite treatment, featuring three main components: first, a matchmaking component, which suggests up to three scientist matches for each treatment firm. The second component will be an in-person event which will have a workshop to catalyze collaborations and include facilitated brainstorming sessions to identify joint areas for collaboration. The third will be post-workshop support (including in-person meetings and consultation sessions) in facilitating the resolution of any issues in the collaboration, incl. the provision of informational materials that would facilitate a collaboration such as model templates and legal advise for allocation of intellectual property resulting from the partnership (if any). The control arm will not receive any of these components.
Experimental Design Details
The impacts of the matchmaking pilot initiative shall be evaluated via a rigorous impact evaluation, providing insights into the ways and importance of supporting business-science collaboration in driving collaborations and eventually innovation. In particular, the pilot aims to answer the following research questions:

Main Matchmaking Intervention: The experiment is a bundled intervention that targets multiple constraints, including information (by telling firms which scientists may be a good match) and transaction costs (by co-developing a collaboration plan). We will rely on endline surveys to test for which mechanism(s) may be most relevant in explaining any treatment effects.
(a) Can matchmaking interventions for firms and scientists increase collaboration, and improve firm outcomes such as innovation and returns?
(b) If the answer to the previous question is yes, we will test for how the returns are distributed across firms and scientists.
(c) Does the impact of this intervention, if any, last?
Randomization Method
Stata
Randomization Unit
Firm
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
210 firms
Sample size: planned number of observations
210 firms
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
100 treated, 110 control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
80% power for 200 firms if we assume that we move the likelihood of business-science collaboration from almost zero (0.01%) to 10%.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
London Business School
IRB Approval Date
2024-01-11
IRB Approval Number
REC909-11012027
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials