Abstract
Over the last 20 years, universities and Public Research Organizations have increased their efforts to transfer their research results towards industrial applications in order to generate economic and social impact. Among many different actions, new technology transfer offices (TTOs) have been set up and existing ones strengthened. The present paper intends to evaluate the effects of a specific policy action launched by the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM) within the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE), aimed at increasing the number of employees in TTOs to foster technology transfer in general and the valorization of intellectual property rights more specifically. Our results suggest that the impact of the UIBM policy action has been positive and that in some specific situations the impact was stronger. Our results therefore contribute to the technology transfer literature and can have implications for both academic research and decisions regarding investments in human resources in university TTOs.
Highlights
The creation of new scientific knowledge and its valorization to create economic and social impact through new products, services and processes represent crucial challenges in both advanced and emerging economies
Knowledge transfer is an extremely complex and multifaceted process (Bradley et al 2013) of which University Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) are commonly recognized as an important component, albeit not the only one (Holgersson and Aaboen 2019), even if some scholars are skeptical about their contribution (Goldfarb and Henrekson 2003; Krücken et al 2007; Muscio 2010; Saragossi and van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie 2003)
If we consider the number of identified inventions (Table 5), having more people in the TTOs has a positive and statistically significant effect; the same occurs for the age of the TTO
Summary
The creation of new scientific knowledge and its valorization to create economic and social impact through new products, services and processes represent crucial challenges in both advanced and emerging economies. It is not surprising, that currently there is much discussion among scholars and policy makers about the Third Mission of universities and the design and implementation of policy actions aimed at supporting knowledge transfer activities (Guimón and Paunov 2020). After 2005 Italian universities have systematically invested in TTOs, hiring specialized people (Algieri et al 2013; Bigliardi et al 2015). This strengthening process of TTOs has been constant but not very rapid, due to budget constraints in universities and to their different degrees of commitment to Third Mission activities
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