Technology transfer with search intensity and project advertising

Abstract

We present a model where technology transfer (TT) is embedded into a non cooperative model of utility and profit maximization and is the result of an endogenous matching process between technology transfer offices and innovative firms. We show that TT strictly depends on the costs of searching researchers and firm advertising for vacant projects. In this scenario, technology progress might be excessively low if technology transfer offices search for project matches too much intensively. The result occurs because both sides of the market ignore the externalities of their decisions. Complementarity or substitutability between the tightness in the TT market and the technology stock are both potential equilibrium outcomes.