[seanewest]

There is a difference between research and academia. Academia in an institution, with specific ways of becoming a member (thesis, tenure) and structure to support the sharing of information (journals, conferences). These structures don't fit well with startups.

Behavioral research and drawing insights from huge amounts of social data is definitely useful for the startup industry. But people can do this completely outside of academia where there aren't massive barriers to entry. And they can share their findings using blogs, books, github, consulting, etc.