Technology Transfer Offices Research Articles

Managing technology transfer and university-industry linkage in a developing country: empirical evidence from Nigeria

Knowledge institutions are key drivers of national competitiveness. The expectations from these institutions now include knowledge transfer to support industrial development. To coordinate these efforts, technology transfer offices (TTOs) become a plausible strategy. In Nigeria, these offices are mandated to manage intellectual property assets, create IP awareness, and engage industry for research uptake. This paper provides a baseline assessment of how TTOs have performed in Nigeria, including key challenges confronting them. Primary data were collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire. Results show that IP sensitisation, IP strategy promotion, and collation of completed and ongoing R&D outputs were prominent activities of these offices. Industry visitation and technology open day strategies were deployed to promote technology transfer. Some TTOs performed better than others in IP asset creation, while five of them reported six spin-off products. The paper concludes with key challenges confronting them and proposes appropriate policy recommendations for effective management.

University technology transfer: assessment of invention disclosures by technology transfer offices

University technology transfer: assessment of invention disclosures by technology transfer offices

University technology transfer: assessment of invention disclosures by technology transfer offices

University technology transfer: assessment of invention disclosures by technology transfer offices

Be An Impactful, Proactive Technology Transfer Office in a Globalized and Digitalized World: A Lived Experience

Be An Impactful, Proactive Technology Transfer Office in a Globalized and Digitalized World: A Lived Experience

Technology Transfer Offices and Their Role with Information Mechanisms for Innovation Performance in Firms: The Case of Ghana

Research into formal and informal technology transfer between universities and industry in economical developed counties is well-documented. However, such studies are limited in number in developing economies. In the context of developing economies, this study analyses technology transfer offices’ role in university technology transfer to Ghanaian firms. We incorporate informal mechanisms as a moderating variable to explore the role of human interaction in the technology transfer value chain. In a cross-sectional survey in Ghana, using structural equation modelling with 245 firms, our research finds a negative moderating effect of informal mechanisms on the effect of technology transfer offices on innovation performance in firms. The findings are of significance to universities and corporate bodies in economically developing nations such as Ghana. Policies to improve the effect of informal mechanisms of university technology transfer offices are proposed in developing economies.

Academic stars and licensing experience in university technology commercialization

AbstractResearch SummaryWe examine the process by which university technology transfer offices (TTOs) allocate internal resources, which provides insight into technologies offered for commercialization to the private sector. Using detailed administrative records of patenting decisions and outcomes by one prominent U.S. research‐based university's TTO over a 30‐year period, we analyze the performance of invention disclosures by academic stars and by inventors with prior licensing experience. We find that the lead inventor's academic prominence (but not licensing experience) predicts patent application filing, while licensing experience (but not academic prominence) predicts patent impact and commercialization success. We supplement this descriptive analysis with follow‐up interviews and empirical evaluation of possible mechanisms for this seemingly outsized role of academic stars.Managerial SummaryIncreasingly prevalent hybrid organizations are expected to fulfill multiple objectives. University technology transfer offices (TTOs) are an example of a hybrid organization and are charged with disseminating academia‐originated technology for the public good as well as for economic benefit. We study how one TTO allocates internal resources, using comprehensive in‐house administrative data over a 30‐year span. We find that while the TTO tends to put resources behind inventions by academic stars, the commercial returns from licensing inventions from such individuals are no different than inventions by non‐stars. By contrast, inventors' prior licensing experience highly predicts commercial returns. These results illustrate the challenges inherent in internal resource allocation inside a complex hybrid organization.

Not just numbers! Improving TTO performance by balancing the soft sides of the TQM

PurposeThis study investigates the role of “soft” factors of total quality management – in terms of empowerment and engagement of employees – in facilitating or hindering organizational performance of the university technology transfer offices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors developed an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), multiple regression model to test if empowerment and engagement affect organizational performance of the university technology transfer offices.FindingsThe authors found that “soft” factors of total quality management – in terms of empowerment and engagement – facilitate the improvement of organizational performance in university technology transfer offices.Practical implicationsThe authors’ analysis shows that soft total quality management practices create the conditions for improving organizational performance. This study provides practical implications by showing that, in the evaluation of the technology transfer office, not only the “hard” variables (e.g. number of employees and employee experience) but also the “soft” one (e.g. empowerment and engagement) matter. Therefore, university technology transfer managers or university technology transfer delegates should take actions to promote not only empowering employees but also create a climate conducive to employees' engagement in the university technology transfer offices.Originality/valueWith regards to the differences in organizational performances of university technology transfer offices, several studies have focused their attention on technology transfer professionals in technology transfer offices, but only a few of them have examined the “soft side” of total quality management. Thus, this study examines the organizational goals of technology transfer offices through “soft” factors of total quality management in terms of empowerment and engagement employees.

Critical Factors in Technology Transfer Office (TTO) Process That Support Successful Technology Transfer Within Research Universities (RUs)

The purpose of this paper is to analyse potentially significant factors in a series of relevant characteristics of universities’ technology transfer offices (TTOs). Previous studies stated that TTO plays an important role in shaping the direction of technology transfer growth in Research Universities (RUs) and could increase the economic growth. However, the success rate of commercialization in RUs innovations are low when compared to start-ups/spinoffs companies against the Intellectual Properties Rights (IPR) produced. Therefore, there is a need to enhance the role of TTO in RUs to enable successful technology transfer. This study conducts a systematic literature review synthesis to identify role and responsibilities of TTO in the process of commercialization, determine critical factors for enabling successful technology transfer and understanding RUs innovation ecosystem for enhancing successful technology transfer. The results provide evidence that TTO which has appropriate institutional structure with entrepreneurial activities could facilitate development of academic entrepreneurship roles thereby motivating successful RUs technology transfer. These results are expected to improve the successful commercialization rate of universities inventions in consistent with the regional economic growth in Malaysia. Future studies are recommended to include development of a framework for nurturing strategic entrepreneurship within TTO to enhance commercialization of innovation through RUs technology transfer.

Motivations and barriers of university-industry cooperation: a comparison between Brazil and Ireland

University-industry cooperation (UIC) is increasingly seen as an essential innovation strategy and technology transfer offices (TTOs) play an important role in this process but are still neglected by industries and researchers. Public policies have been developed worldwide since the Bay-dole act in 1980, but emerging countries still face difficulties in promoting UIC compared to developed countries. This article aims to highlight and compare the main motivations and barriers for UIC in Brazilian and Irish TTOs. Based on a literature review, a questionnaire was applied to the heads of nine TTOs. This research is characterized as a multiple case study with a qualitative approach. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the TTOs from Ireland and Brazil have different motivations for cooperation, but face similar barriers despite the completely different contexts they are in.

The Commercialisation of University Research Outputs: A Review of Literature

Universities are presently experiencing rapid transformation, shifting emphasis from pure teaching to equal their strength in teaching and research to increase their capacity to commercialise. The universities are not only accountable for teaching and research accomplishments but they are expected to commercialise their research outputs into marketable products and services. This paper identifies and ranks the factors that are influencing the commercialisation of university research outputs. A Systematic Review of Literature (SLR) was made on 59 articles that were published between 2000 and 2022. The findings indicate that the significant factors influencing the commercialisation of research outputs included; collaboration/networking, research funding, regulative factors both by government and university, entrepreneurial culture, availability of research infrastructure, the competence of researchers, motivation and attitude of researchers, transformational leadership culture, technology suitability for commercialisation, protection of Intellectual Property Rights, the effectiveness of Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and closeness to industry. Keywords: Commercialization, Factors, Research outputs, Systematic literature review.

The transfer of technology from the organizational viewpoint

The transfer of technology from the organizational viewpoint

A Scientometric Analysis of University Business Incubators and Accelerators Based on 20 Year of Research

University business incubators (UBIs) are established with a vision to promote entrepreneurship at university levels by providing people with support services. The purpose of this approach is to stimulate the growth and development of new startups, spin-offs, TTOs (Technology transfer offices), and existing firms. (UBIs) are dedicating a facility by providing subsidized office space, consultation, and other services. The current study is aimed to systematically review the literature of university business incubators and accelerators by keeping in view the importance of (UBIs). Besides, it also focuses on their roles of performance in economic and social development by promoting entrepreneurship at university campuses. This study is unique in a sense that it contributes to the university business incubation research by reviewing, synthesizing, and evaluating its literature with ‘citations-based analysis approach’. Data of this research has been analyzed with the ‘Scopus Database’ since, 2001 to 2020. Articles have been screened and shortlisted based on predefined eligibility criteria. We have used ‘R-Studio Biblioshiny Software’ for articles’ scientometric analysis including most influential journals, authors, articles, and top contributing countries. Quantitative analysis has performed including yearly publications trend, citations trend, and top articles based on average citations. VOS-Viewer Software has also been used to perform co-occurrence analysis and co-authorship analysis. The content analysis of top 50, highly cited articles has been conducted to identify the methodological approaches, variables, and theoretical underpinnings. Findings contribute to university business incubation’s (UBIs), literature by analyzing the articles individually, start-ups, incubators, networks, and university levels. Theoretical underpinnings used in (UBIs), represent the ‘institutional theory’, ‘knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship’, ‘resource-based view’ (RBV), ‘structural theory’, and ‘triple helix model’.

Technology transfer performance of public research institutes: the case of Romania

PurposeThis study was aimed at testing whether the technology transfer performance of Romanian public research institutes—measured as the ability to generate patented technology—was positively related to institutional, human, commercial and financial factors.Design/methodology/approachA non-negative integer count data model was implemented to investigate a large sample of Romanian public research institutes in the period 2012–2019.FindingsThe results confirmed the positive influence of qualified human resources and commercial resources (technology transfer offices and spinoffs). Institutional factors were also relevant alongside the research field.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper has limitations inherent to an investigation conducted in an emerging economy, with a low innovative culture and little interest in technology transfer. Although the analysis focused on a specific country, the findings obtained may be extended to other contexts.Practical implicationsTo increase their technology transfer, managers of public research institutes and governmental authorities are suggested to implement structural changes and incentives regarding the skilled human capital, the entrepreneurial knowledge and efforts, and the provision of financial resources.Social implicationsResults showed that emerging innovator countries, such as Romania, should stimulate human capital to get involved in commercial activities, as interactions between public research institutes and the private sector generate economic, social, and environmental benefits.Originality/valueThis study concentrated on the performance evaluation of research and development activities carried out by public research institutes. Therefore, it contributes to a broad strand of literature which has essentially focused on universities, paying less attention to the contributions to scientific research of other organisations, such as public research institutes.

Towards a model for determining patent revenue odds: An empirical study of technology transfer offices

AbstractTechnology transfer offices (TTO) were created with the mission of executing innovation policy and its technology transfer to industry. Most studies regarding TTO focus on the context of developed countries, so there is a lack of research on the subject in emerging economies, such as Brazil. In addition, the issue of how diverse the skills of the team of a given TTO should be for their best revenue performance is still little addressed. In this sense, the present study aims to identify which characteristics of the TTO, related to their human resources, influence obtaining revenue from the patents that constitute their portfolios. To achieve this objective, 272 TTO in Brazil were analysed with the help of the Logistic Regression technique, based on Maximum Likelihood Estimation. A remarkable conclusion that emerges from our results is that the universities to increase their revenue must invest in full‐time employees (e.g., rather than in scholarship students, as tends to be the norm) and foster the inventions' communications, as well as to attract and retain employees with skills directly related to knowledge fields such as Law, Engineering, and Communication (quite surprisingly, Management and Economics graduates are not included). The combination of these factors can increase the probabilities or odds of a given TTO obtaining revenue. Thus, our results contribute to TTO human resource practices, especially those in structuring stages, such as those in Brazil and Latin American countries.

YÜKSEKÖĞRETİM KURUMLARINA AİT BULUŞLARIN TİCARİLEŞTİRİLMESİNİN ÖNÜNDEKİ ENGELLER

The most important issue after the emergence of an invention belonging to a higher education institution is the commercialization of this invention. Because unless the invention is converted into a product and commercialized, it is not possible to contribute to technological development. In our country, inventions belonging to higher education institutions are commercialized through Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). In this context, what should be done is to commercialize the invention, whose price is determined, by finding a suitable customer. However, the commercialization process of inventions belonging to higher education institutions becomes quite complex since it is not considered as a whole, and necessary regulations are not brought in our country. The invention is evaluated just like other movable and immovable property owned by the higher education institution. In this respect, tender legislation is applied in legal transactions such as transferring the invention to third parties and licensing it, as in other movable and immovable properties. It is obvious that tender processes are not compatible with the nature of the commercialization of inventions. In addition, it is unclear how the income from commercialization will be shared through which unit of the higher education institution.
 In this context, in the first part of the study, commercialization and commercialization ways and TTOs, in the second part, commercialization barriers and in the last part, solution proposals were tried to be examined.

Co-patenting, co-ownership, and co-ideation as drivers for university business innovation: the case of public universities in Spain

PurposeThis paper explores whether, in the context of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, new innovation strategies can be developed through actors' interactions, the exchange of resources and the co-creation of value for and within the system. In the context of the U–I relationship, the innovation perspective can highlight the need to develop strategies that elicit new formulas of value co-creation, which then facilitate innovation as a result of actor collaboration.Design/methodology/approachA total of 45 public universities in Spain, representing 95% of the total, participated in qualitative research. Personal in-depth interviews with technology transfer officers (TTOs) were conducted by an external firm; in a second phase, two of the researchers conducted eight interviews with the directors of TTOs in those universities with higher rates of transfer.FindingsFindings reveal that enterprises with a technological focus are strengthening their relationships with universities and attempting to build a university business ecosystem by designing strategies for value co-creation such as co-ownership, co-patenting, and co-invention.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical research is conducted in Spain, and results should be interpreted according to this context. Future research should examine new contexts (other countries) to improve the robustness of the data and enrich the results, thus enabling generalization of the management consequences.Originality/valueThe results provide a means to design strategies under a new collaborative and innovating logic. The theoretical framework contributes to theory, with implications for management.

Academic Entrepreneurship and Technical Considerations for the Commercialization of Biomaterial-Based Medical Devices

Academic entrepreneurship, which refers to the university-based initiatives to encourage commercialization on campus and in the surrounding community, has evolved considerably in the recent years. Increasing number of stakeholders have been interested in academic entrepreneurship, and institutions have established higher number of strategies to encourage this development. Universities are organizations that play an important role in modern society by teaching, as well as research and development activities to produce scientific knowledge. Many institutions have recently taken important steps to create a "third purpose", by fostering connections within knowledge and users through promoting technology transfer, sometimes at the request of policymakers. Commercialization of knowledge produced in the academia, which includes patenting and licensing of findings, together with academic entrepreneurship, has gained a lot of attention from both academics and policymakers among the multiple pathways available for forging these linkages. Because it represents direct, demonstrable market acceptance for academic research results, commercialization is seen as a rising model for achieving academic influence. Many institutions have built specialized organizations, such as technology transfer offices (TTOs), scientific parks (Technopolis), and incubators, to aid commercialization as well as supporting internal policies and processes. The linkage between the universities and the industry have massively strengthened through academic entrepreneurship. There has been a significant impact on the regional and economic development due to the technological patents and spinoff companies emerged as a result of the research activities in universities. In this comprehensive review, the recent patent applications in the field of biomaterials in Turkey, Europe, and the United States of America were also covered, highlighting the number of patent applications of different biomaterial subgroups.

Performance measurement of university-industry collaboration in the technology transfer process: A systematic literature review

Background To fostering organizational improvement, the performance must be assessed. In the context of university-industry collaboration (UIC) in the technology transfer process, the performance of also must be assessed. However, the performance covers complex aspects which makes it difficult to be measured. This indicates the need to have a better understanding of the methods used. Therefore, this study presents a systematic literature review on the performance measurement of UIC in the technology transfer process that can give to the researchers an easy and quick overview of the literature about (mainly) the methods used for the performance measurement. Methods We used two major scientific databases, i.e., Scopus and Web of Science. We defined four groups of keywords to restrict the search criteria. We only consider articles published in the last decade, during 2010 to November 2021. The search procedure contains four phases following the PRISMA framework: (i) identification, (ii) screening, (iii) eligibility, and (iv) inclusion. Results The final screening process resulted in 24 articles that satisfied the criteria for inclusion in this review. The collected articles are categorized according to two classifications. The first is about type of the collaboration, while the second is about the methods used. We investigated three types of collaboration, i.e., at the level of technology transfer office (TTO), the academic (university) spin-offs, and joint-research. There are several methods for assessing performance, ranging from qualitative, quantitative, to mixed methods. Conclusion The literature review leads us to the following conclusions. First, most studies are conducted at the TTO level, in which it is anticipated since it is the most common form UIC. Second, the application of data envelopment analysis is still preferable than other method in measuring the performance. This study also provides possible research directions that can facilitate scholars to uncover gaps in the literature.

Technology transfer offices and the formation of academic spin-off entrepreneurial teams

ABSTRACT A significant proportion of academic spin-offs (ASOs) are founded by entrepreneurial teams (ETs). Yet little is known about how these ETs are formed or the role of technology transfer offices (TTOs) in this formation process. This article examines whether and how TTOs affect the formation of academic spin-off entrepreneurial teams (ASO-ETs). To this end, we study in detail the formation of seven ETs behind life-science ASOs developed in one region in Norway. Our findings show that ASO-ETs followed different paths of formation, partly mirroring the organization of the TTOs. We further identify four different roles played by TTOs, two direct and two indirect, that shape the formation of these ETs. Based on organization imprinting theory, we contribute to the team entrepreneurship literature by developing a new framework showing how TTOs imprint the formation of ETs in ASO settings.

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

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.