Multidimensional experience and performance of highly skilled administrative staff: Evidence from a technology transfer office

Abstract

Experience defined in terms of time, scope, type, density and timing affect performance of highly skilled administrative staff. We apply a multidimensional model to the field of science commercialization as a typical multi-goal oriented process. We identify how different conceptualizations of experience models lead to diverse conclusions regarding their effects on facets of performance such as speed, efficiency and revenue. Acknowledging multifaceted goals of science commercialization, we further contribute to the body of work on individual level factors regarding universities' commercialization performance. In this paper we provide evidence from the context of universities' commercialization efforts, relying on administrative records of a Japanese university including 845 transfer cases over a 13-year period (2004–2016). By focusing on coordinators working in a technology transfer office, and the various measurement modes of their experience, we detect several important characteristics. While several experience components affect speed and efficiency of technology transfer, our results show that revenue is determined by interaction components.