SBIR at NASA (2016) / Chapter Skim
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5 Quantitative Outcomes
5 Quantitative Outcomes
Pages 91-117
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From page 91... ...
to increase private-sector commercialization derived from federal research and development. 1 This chapter provides an analysis of program outcomes related to the first, second and fourth goals: stimulating technological innovation, using small business to meet Federal research and development needs, and increasing private-sector commercialization of federally funded research.
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From page 92... ...
Tables and figures with company-level data are marked as reporting the number and percentage of responding companies. Not all survey recipients completed every survey question; as a result, the number of respondents and the number of responding companies varies.
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From page 93... ...
The committee suggests that, where feasible, future assessments of the SBIR program include comparisons of non-awardees, such as in matched samples (Azouley et al., 2014) or regression discontinuity analysis (Howell, 2015)
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PROJECT GO-AHEAD ABSENT SBIR FUNDING One approach has been to ask recipients for their own views on the program's impact on their project or company. In particular, the survey asked respondents whether the project would have been undertaken absent receipt of the SBIR award and whether the scope and timing would have been affected.
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Appendix G provides data from the Department of Defense on NASA SBIR awards. OVERVIEW Increasing Commercialization Each agency has its own priorities for the SBIR program, and SBIRsupported technologies can be infused into agency programs or commercialized in the private sector or both.
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funding. Stimulating Technological Innovation Regarding the first goal, there is ample quantitative evidence that NASA is using its SBIR program to stimulate technology development, enhance science and technology, and add to the scientific knowledge base.
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Less than one-quarter reported that SBIR accounted for more than 50 percent of company revenues during the most recent fiscal year. QUANTITATIVE SURVEY EVIDENCE THAT NASA INCREASED COMMERCIALIZATION This section presents the quantitative survey results related to the success of the NASA SBIR program in meeting its commercialization-related goals, both through the take-up of technology by NASA and commercialization outside NASA.
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Defining "Commercialization" Several important conceptual challenges emerge when seeking to define "commercialization" for the purposes of the SBIR program. Like many apparently simple concepts, commercialization becomes progressively more difficult and complex as it is subjected to further scrutiny.
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From page 99... ...
Of course, even tightly targeted mission-oriented programs can and do produce technologies with sometimes significant non-NASA market potential. In the main, however, these factors do impact the management of the NASA SBIR program and the manner and quality of its success metrics.
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But a closer look at the data, reveals that only an average of 2 percent of sales were to a NASA prime contractor. Given that most core NASA programs have a significant share of work performed by prime contractors, this low percentage is deserving of attention if SBIR programs are going to play a larger role in meeting NASA core program needs.
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From page 101... ...
These results suggest strong crossover between the NASA and DoD market sectors and provide further evidence of the limited market available within NASA, even though take-up within NASA is a primary objective of the NASA SBIR program. Employment As with prior surveys, 2011 Survey respondents were asked both about the size of the company at the time of the award and the current size, in terms of number of employees.
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TABLE 5-5 Number of Company Employees at Time of Award and at Time of Survey, Reported by 2011 Survey Responding Companies At Time of Award At Time of Survey Percentage of Number of Percentage of Number of Number of Responding Responding Responding Responding Employees Companies Companies Companies Companies Under 5 30 23 24 18 5 to 9 18 14 12 9 10 to 19 19 15 19 14 20 to 49 20 15 23 17 50 to 99 6 5 11 9 100 or more 7 5 11 8 Total 100 77 100 75 Mean 26 46 Median 10 15 NOTE: In cases where company information, as opposed to individual projection information, was collected, multiple responses from the same company were averaged. SOURCE: 2011 Survey, Questions 18A and 18B.
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As shown in Table 5-8, 16 percent of responding companies reported that their company had spun off one or more 16 See National Research Council, An Assessment of the SBIR Program, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2008. 17 2011 Survey, Question 33.
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TABLE 5-7 Distribution of All Reported Additional Project Investments by Source of Funds, Reported by 2011 Survey Respondents Percentage of Total Funding Reported by Respondents that Received Additional Source of Additional Investment Project Investments Non-[SBIR/STTR] federal funding 71 U.S.
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new companies. Greater than 9 percent of responding companies indicated that the awardee company had been acquired or merged with another firm.
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20 Conclusions: Commercialization at the Company Level Evidence from the 2011 Survey provides useful insight into the commercialization record of SBIR companies at NASA, on a number of dimensions. The data confirm that a substantial percentage of projects do indeed commercialize through sales of products or services and/or advance toward commercialization through the receipt of additional development funding.
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QUANTITATIVE SURVEY EVIDENCE THAT NASA STIMULATED TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION Did the NASA SBIR program stimulate technological innovation? Although the committee was unable to develop an appropriate control group to analyze against SBIR awardees, it is at least possible to examine -- as have previous Academies and GAO surveys -- what the company believed might have happened absent SBIR funding.
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From page 108... ...
This section of the chapter examines a number of measures to examine how the NASA SBIR program has stimulated technological innovation -- first examining knowledge outcomes such as patents and then returning the broader topic of fostering innovative companies. Knowledge Outcomes Although patents and peer-reviewed papers are not the only metrics of knowledge development and dissemination by small high-tech companies, they offer a useful starting point.
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From page 109... ...
Four percent of respondents reported receipt of more than three patents specifically related to the surveyed award, compared to zero in the 2005 Survey. TABLE 5-10 Number of Patents per Company Related to All Company SBIR Awards, Reported by 2011 Survey Responding Companies Number of Patents Resulting, at Least in Part, from the Company's Percentage of Number of Responding SBIR Awards Responding Companies Companies 0 24 15 1 or 2 39 25 3 or 4 13 8 5 to 9 11 7 10 or more 14 9 Total 100 64 At least 1 76 49 NOTE: In cases where company information, as opposed to individual projection information, was collected, multiple responses from the same company were averaged.
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. The existence of articles based TABLE 5-12 Peer-Reviewed Scientific Publications Related to the Surveyed Project, Reported by 2011 Survey Respondents Number of Scientific Publications Published for the Technology Developed Percentage of Number of as a Result of the Project Respondents Respondents 0 18 23 1 20 26 2 19 24 3 12 16 More than 3 31 40 Total 100 129 At least 1 82 106 SOURCE: 2011 Survey, Question 39.4.1.
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Linkages to university is an important component in examining evidence that NASA "stimulated technological innovation," Goal 1 of the SBIR Program. University connections can also benefit SBCs by giving access to technical expertise.
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We believe these data provide a preliminary indication of the connections between specific universities, university systems, and the NASA SBIR program. Finally it is worth observing that 63 percent of companies that responded to 2011 Survey question 4 reported that at least one founder had an academic background (see Table 5-15)
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QUANTITATIVE OUTCOMES 113 TABLE 5-14 University Participants Mentioned by Two or More 2011 Survey Respondents College or University Name Number of Mentions Pennsylvania State University 4 Purdue University 4 Stanford University 4 University of California, Berkeley 4 Georgia Institute of Technology 3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3 The Ohio State University 3 Rutgers University 3 University of Alabama 3 University of Central Florida 3 University of Houston 3 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 3 Dartmouth College 2 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2 Texas A&M University 2 University of Arizona 2 University of Colorado 2 University of Florida 2 University of Maryland 2 University of Minnesota 2 University of Notre Dame 2 Virginia Polytechnic Institute 2 SOURCE: 2011 Survey, Question 60a. TABLE 5-15 Number of Academic Founders, Reported by 2011 Survey Responding Companies Number of Academic Percentage of Responding Number of Responding Founders Companies Companies None 37 27 1 42 30 2 11 8 3 6 4 4 3 2 5 or more 1 1 Total 100 72 At least 1 63 45 NOTE: In cases where company information, as opposed to individual projection information, was collected, multiple responses from the same company were averaged.
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. TABLE 5-16 Most Recent Founder Employment, Reported by 2011 Survey Responding Companies Percentage of Number of Responding Most Recent Founder Employment Responding Companies Companies Other private company 69 50 College or University 29 21 Government 9 6 Other 11 8 NOTE: Number of Responding Companies = 72.
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The 2011 Survey asked respondents to indicate how many prior SBIR Phase I awards they had received that were related to the project and technology TABLE 5-18 Percentage of Company Revenues from SBIR for Most Recent Fiscal Year (Reported at Time of 2011 Survey by Responding Companies Percentage of Number of Percent of Company Revenues from SBIR Responding Responding at the Time of the Survey Companies Companies 0 28 20 1-10 15 11 11-25 14 10 26-50 21 15 51-75 10 7 76-100 13 9 Total 100 72 NOTE: In cases where company information, as opposed to individual projection information, was collected, multiple responses from the same company were averaged. Because survey sample includes inactive awards, some respondents reported zero SBIR revenues for the most recent fiscal year.
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Conclusions: Stimulating Technological Innovation What emerges from these data is a picture of companies that are dynamic centers of technological innovation, a considerable amount of which is protected through the patent system. Seventy-six percent of responding companies reported that their company had received at least one patent based on its work under SBIR contracts, while 45 percent reported at least one patent related to the surveyed project only.
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From page 117... ...
Forty percent of respondents indicated that 10 percent or less of total company R&D effort was devoted to SBIR activities in the most recent fiscal year, and 28 percent of responding companies indicated that zero percent of company revenues came from SBIR for the most recent fiscal year. Still, more than threequarters of survey respondents reported prior Phase I awards related to the project surveyed, and more than a third reported more than one prior Phase I awards.
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