Determinants of University Technology Transfer - Comparative Study of US, Europe and Australian Universities

Abstract

We studied the factors that influence university knowledge commercialization through university Technology Transfer Office (TTO). We analyzed the resources associated with commercialization performance as measured by patenting, licensing, and spin-off activities in a sample of 124 Australian, European and US universities. Our analysis suggests that high levels of commercialization output are positively associated with the commercial resources of a university, the TTO age, the stock of technology, whether it is private or public university, TTO's director background and the presence of a business incubator and science park. The most significant finding in this study is the difference between Australian, European and US universities with respect to the resources associated with high commercialization output. An interesting finding is that no relationship is found between an entrepreneurial university culture and the success of commercialization initiatives.