TESTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ORGANIZATIONAL PRACTICES IN UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROGRAMS.

Abstract

This paper examines the process of commercializing university faculty-invented intellectual property, which is commonly referred to as university-industry technology transfer (UITT). I develop a model of the UITT process based on a review of tech transfer operations at 139 research universities. I then show that the tech transfer process can be viewed as a special case of the technology innovation life cycle and use the model to empirically test the organizational effectiveness of UITT operations. This study shows that although UITT operations tend to be similar in organization and functional goals, there are profound differences in their policies, procedures and view of their role in the process of developing faculty IP for potential commercialization. There is a fundamental continuum of primary activities from basic research through commercialization of the IP that lead to the desirable results of deploying technology for the public good and generating revenues for the university. Universities that recognize this continuum and provide support and funding at all steps of the life cycle perform better than those who do not.