Abstract
Commercial ventures between university researchers and private companies have become a matter of widespread debate. Advocates of such ventures usually present university-industry partnerships as benefiting the general public. They promise new technologies and consumer products that will stimulate the economy, and thus eventually benefit everyone. Even a prominent critic of commercialization notes that market forces have caused universities “to become less stodgy and elitist and more vigorous in their efforts to aid economic growth” (Bok 2003, 15–16). Indeed, some recent studies of scientific practice reveal an emerging “spiral model of innovation,” in which laboratory research and its commercial applications