National Survey of Research Commercialisation - Australian ...

NATIONAL SURVEY OF RESEARCH COMMERCIALISATION
by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The PPPs
used were:
Australia 1.320
Canada 1.208
USA 1.000
The reader should note that there are some variations in the scope of research
expenditure reported by institutions in the three countries. For a summary of those
variations, the reader is referred to the OECD publication, Main Science and Technology
Indicators 2002/1 (OECD, 2002). In particular, the scope of research expenditure data
reported by institutions in Australia and Canada appears to be wider than that for data
reported by institutions in the USA.
Country comparisons were made also on the basis of ratios of each of the four
indicators to gross domestic product (GDP), as a way of adjusting absolute levels
of commercialisation activity in the four areas in the three countries relative to the
magnitude of overall economic output in those countries.
Figures for GDP in 2000 for the three countries were sourced from the OECD’s Main
Science and Technology Indicators 2002/1(OECD, 2002). For each country, the figure for
GDP that was used for comparative purposes was that expressed in US dollars on the
basis of the purchasing power parities referred to above.
To account for the fact that, in each country, the four indicators of commercialisation
reflect only samples of the overall level of activity, and that these samples vary in size
from country to country, GDP was, in each case, multiplied by a factor that embodied
the response rate of institutions in each country relative to the response rate of US
institutions, as follows:
Respondents Response rate Adjustment factor
Australia 49 78% (A) 0.77 (=B/A)
USA 167 60% (B) 1.00 (=B/B)
Canada 22 44% (C) 1.36 (=B/C)
This adjustment was not necessary in the case of research expenditure, since the
expenditures used in the calculation of ratios for the comparisons was only that of the
respondent institutions in each of the three countries.
The reader should note that the assumption that underlies the adjustment made to GDP
is that the samples of institutions for the three countries are equally representative of
the level of commercial activity of institutions that were the subject of the surveys. This
might not be the case.
For the comparisons of adjusted gross income from licences, amounts of income were
adjusted using the PPPs and are expressed in US dollars.
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