The impact of hybrid public and market-oriented financing mechanisms on the scientific portfolio and performances of public research labs: A scientometric analysis

The scientific problem of this study is the analysis of the portfolio of outputs by public research labs in the presence of hybrid funding scheme based on public and marketoriented financing mechanisms. Research institutes are considered Decision Making Units, which produce two different kinds of scientific outputs using inputs. We consider some scientific outputs with more international visibility (High Visibility Outputs-HVOs) than others called Low Visibility Outputs (LVOs). We confront this problem by a scientometric approach applying models of the Directional Output Distance Function, which endeavours to measure and analyze the effects of hybrid financing of public research labs in terms of potential loss in high quality scientific outputs, in particular when the share of market- oriented funds is beyond a specific threshold. Results, considering R&D organizations of ‘‘hard sciences’’, seem to show that a hybrid financing scheme, too market-oriented for supporting operation (and survival) of research labs, tends to affect scientific output portfolio by lowering scientific performances and HVOs. The study here also proposes a preliminary analysis of the optimal level of market financing in relation to total financial resources for a fruitful co-existence of market and public funding scheme to maximize the scientific output (publications) of R&D labs. The findings show main differences across scientific departments and some critical weaknesses points and threats by public research labs for production of scientific outputs.