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Strategic choice in universities: Managerial agency and effective technology transfer
Abstract
Current theorising about the contingencies underpinning the effectiveness of university technology transfer has emphasised the importance of organisational support, namely the scale of Technology Transfer Office (TTO) support and the provision of incentives. Empirical results pertaining to the effects of these organisational supports are mixed. More recently, academic research and policy reviews have highlighted the potential significance of the strategic choices made by university managers in contributing to the effectiveness of technology transfer activity. Our research attempts to reconcile these two streams of technology transfer research by drawing on Child’s strategic choice theory as an integrating framework. Through operationalising a strategic choice framework and drawing upon data from 115 UK universities (collected through multiple waves of the HE-BCI Survey), this research shows that supporting organisational infrastructure is necessary but not sufficient to account for improved technology transfer effectiveness. Specifically, it highlights the key mediating role of strategic choice, suggesting that it is the alignment between strategic choices made by university managers and the supporting organisational infrastructure that accounts for variations in technology transfer effectiveness. Furthermore, we find the mediation relationship between strategic alignment and technology transfer effectiveness is moderated by the breadth of strategic planning efforts, with those universities that engage a wider number of faculty in strategic planning efforts benefiting most from the alignment between strategic choices and supporting organisational infrastructure.
... In order to fill this gap, we draw upon strategic choice theory which suggests that founder intentions interact with their organization's configurations and feedback from the environment to affect their behavior and in so doing shape their financial performance (Child, 1972(Child, , 1997Geels, 2014;Horner et al., 2019). Building off of this premise, we propose that a mindset, entrepreneurs' specific innovativeness, interacts with their organizations' configuration, their ventures' degree of digital entrepreneurship (DDE), to affect new venture success. ...
... After examining these different conceptions of innovation, Rosenbusch et al. (2011) found that innovative attitude is more beneficial than other measures of innovation such as patents or new products. This finding is consistent with strategic choice theory's contention that attitude or intentionality is a key driver of performance (Child, 1972(Child, , 1997Geels, 2014;Horner et al., 2019). Thus, while the term "innovation" is broad and ambiguous (Rosenbusch et al., 2011), an intention to pursue innovation is not. ...
... Confirming specific innovativeness as a critical driver for entrepreneurial success, our findings are entirely consistent with strategic choice theory (Child, 1972(Child, , 1997Geels, 2014;Horner et al., 2019). We contribute to innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic choice theory in several ways. ...
How does digital entrepreneurship help innovative, women entrepreneurs in emerging economies? Using strategic choice theory, we predict that specific innovativeness improves new venture performance, and that digital entrepreneurship enables innovativeness and increases its effect on performance. We also predict that innovative female entrepreneurs benefit more than male ones from a high degree of digital entrepreneurship. We confirm our hypotheses using primary data of entrepreneurs from Ghana (N = 199) and Vietnam (N = 223). We also conducted a series of robustness tests to validate our findings. We conclude that strategic choices among new ventures yield best results if bounded by prior strategic choice and specific innovativeness, enabled by a high degree of digital entrepreneurship, and enacted by women.
... Previous studies have explored the different forms of strategic management and decision-making (Calcagnini et al., 2018;Derrick, 2015;Guerreiro and Souza, 2019;Hall et al., 2014;Leite et al., 2019;Nandagopal, 2013;O 'Kane et al., 2020;Owen-Smith, 2005;Pitsakis and Giachetti, 2020;Ploykitikoon and Daim, 2010;Senoo et al., 2009;Sexton and Ligler, 2018;Sinell et al., 2018;Smandek et al., 2010;Tello et al., 2010). Some studies have addressed TT policies (Cannavacciuolo et al., 2015;Chakroun, 2017;Geoghegan and Pontikakis, 2008;Panagopoulos and Carayannis, 2013;Shane and Somaya, 2007;Sidhu, 2011;Siegel et al., 2007), while others have explored the strategic alignment among stakeholders (Alexander et al., 2018;Alexander and Martin, 2013;Horner et al., 2019) and benchmarking as a TTO implementation strategy (Novorodovska et al., 2020). ...
... These factors are related to the capacity of scientists, organizational characteristics of the TTO, innovation ecosystem (Belitski et al., 2019), and universities (Galán-Muros et al., 2017). This may also be related to the activities of TTOs, strategic objectives, and organizational structure as points aligned with strategy (Fai et al., 2018;Giuri et al., 2019;Horner et al., 2019) and performance (Horner et al., 2019). ...
... These factors are related to the capacity of scientists, organizational characteristics of the TTO, innovation ecosystem (Belitski et al., 2019), and universities (Galán-Muros et al., 2017). This may also be related to the activities of TTOs, strategic objectives, and organizational structure as points aligned with strategy (Fai et al., 2018;Giuri et al., 2019;Horner et al., 2019) and performance (Horner et al., 2019). ...
This study presents a systematic literature review on technology transfer offices (TTOs). It attempts to identify and characterize the existing literature that uses TTO as an object of study and presents a plan for future research in this context. We considered the Scopus and Web of Science databases to analyze the papers published between 1988 and 2020. The search resulted in the selection and analysis of 186 articles. A systematic analysis was conducted with the help of Excel and the VOSviewer software, followed by a content analysis. The results revealed that, despite the growing interest in research on TTOs, a greater concentration of studies have analyzed TTO strategy and technology transfer performance. Other topics such as human resources, financial resources, and networks have been less studied. This paper establishes the grounds for grasping the gaps existing in the literature and proposes a future research agenda. Thus, this research contributes to the theoretical knowledge of themes related to TTOs because it analyzed the actual literature, identified gaps in the literature, provides researchers with new insights into the TTOs, and presented research opportunities about the main problems of TTOs that can be solved from the research development focused on resolution.
... Strategic Choice Theory (SCT) is an essential framework in strategic management, emphasizing the role of managerial discretion in shaping organizational outcomes. According to the Strategic Choice Theory, organizations have the freedom to make strategic choices that affect their performance and competitive position despite the limitations imposed by their environment [19]. Focusing on the roles of cognitive processes, social dynamics, and power relationships in decision-making, SCT emphasizes the significance of managerial decisions and actions in determining organizational results [13]. ...
... The early development of SCT can be traced back to Child's (1972) seminal work, which challenged the deterministic assumptions of contingency theory and emphasized the role of executive agency in shaping organizational structure and strategy [19]. ...
... Its potential oversimplification of the complex interplay between internal and external factors that influence strategic decision-making processes in organizations. [19], [24], [30] ...
This literature review presents a systematic review of popular supply chain management (SCM) theories, focusing on their definitions, early development, and contributions to the field. Seven fundamental theories are analyzed in detail: Resource-Based View, Agency Theory, Transaction Cost Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Balanced Scorecard Theory, Knowledge-Based View Theory, and Strategic Choice Theory. The study traces the origins and evolution of these theories, highlighting their unique foundations and the contexts in which they emerged. The review also discusses the fundamental principles and underlying assumptions of each theory, emphasizing their relevance to SCM and the implications for its practice. The review shows how these theories have helped us understand and improve SCM and how they can improve supply chain performance, promote sustainability, and drive innovation. This thorough analysis is a helpful tool for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who want to learn more about the different theories that continue to shape and inform the field of supply chain management.
... Collectively referred to in the literature as knowledge exchange (KE) -such activities include interactions with industry, public bodies and charities, local and regional outreach programs, executive education, and academic entrepreneurship. Over time, KE has become increasingly important to universities, both strategically and financially (Guerrero and Urbano, 2012;Horner et al., 2019;Siegel and Wright, 2015), yet the management of KE has received limited attention in the academic literature (Ambos et al., 2008;Sengupta and Ray, 2017a). ...
... At the same time, policymakers in both developed economies (such as in the UK, USA, EU, Australia) and in emerging ones (Ray and Sengupta, 2021) are encouraging universities to exploit their intellectual property and to place socioeconomic impact at the core of all activities (Perkmann et al., 2021;Rosli and Rossi, 2016). Universities have responded strategically to such external challenges, altering their engagement in research, teaching and KE to best exploit competitive advantages (Hewitt-Dundas, 2012;Horner et al., 2019;Kitagawa et al., 2016;Rossi, 2018;Siegel et al., 2003;Siegel and Wright, 2015). ...
... Existing literature indicates that key decisionmakers within universitiesacademics, senior management and KE managershave to be strategic in their KE activities based on their goals and preferences (Buckland, 2009;Horner et al., 2019;Sengupta and Ray, 2017b) and their access to relevant resources (Siegel et al., 2003(Siegel et al., , 2007Hewitt--Dundas, 2012;Ulrichsen, 2014;Rossi, 2018). Given the changes in the external environment, this strategic approach is relevant for most universities, from large research-intensive "top" universities to "mid-range" ones which, although research active, cannot match the quality and breadth of research and resources that the top institutions command, and consequently face a myriad of constraints in their KE activities (Wright et al., 2008). ...
This paper examines how universities' knowledge exchange (KE) profiles evolve in relation to changes in the composition of their funding sources. Using the dynamic capabilities framework as a conceptual lens, we examine how changes in the share of KE versus research income in a university's financial portfolio are related to the mix of KE channels it uses and of types of stakeholders it engages with, that is, its KE profile. Relying on an 8-year panel of 110 UK-based universities we show that, universities whose share of KE income is higher relative to others, are associated with a higher degree specialization in both KE channels and stakeholder types. Conversely, universities whose share of blue-sky research income is higher relative to others, are associated with greater diversification in both. Some of these linkages are negatively moderated by higher levels of tangible and intangible resources: universities with greater intangible resources are less responsive to variations in research and KE income shares on KE channel diversity; while universities with higher tangible resources are less responsive to variations in research income share on KE stakeholder diversity.
... In this sense, university administrators have been empowered to extend managerial capacity in terms of KT (McClure 2016). More recently, Horner et al. (2019) argue that university administrators could more explicitly focus on crucial strategic participants. Surprisingly, the role of university administrators has been underexplored (Galán-Muros et al. 2017;McClure 2016). ...
... Surprisingly, the role of university administrators has been underexplored (Galán-Muros et al. 2017;McClure 2016). Moreover, numerous scholars have called for the consideration of KT as a university strategy (Chang et al. 2009;Horner et al. 2019;Giuri et al. 2019), while few attempts have been made to capture the strategic role of KT in universities (Giuri et al. 2019). ...
... Later, Galán-Muros et al. (2017) gave the credit for the importance of university top management to KT success. More recently, university administrators have more explicitly been the focus as key strategic participants (Horner et al. 2019). ...
The paper examines the role of organizational commercial slack (OCS) in mediating the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the effectiveness of knowledge transfer (KT) in universities. The paper identifies two types of commercial slack in the university setting: financial and promotional. Four research hypotheses are proposed. Pooled data, that is, a combination of a questionnaire survey of 110 Taiwanese universities with a data set of university KT effectiveness from the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, are collected to test the aforementioned research hypotheses. The empirical results indicate that the EO of a university enables the university to provide appropriate OCS. Furthermore, the commercial slack of a university positively mediates the relationship between EO and KT effectiveness. The paper concludes that developing EO and OCS are crucial for improving the KT effectiveness of a university. Moreover, some managerial and policy implications for promoting EO and OCS in universities are suggested.
... It should be indicated that given the diversity of universities (Grimaldi et al., 2011;Horner et al., 2019), the 'one size-fits-all' model for academic activity -teaching, research as well as related to TT -is not practically applicable and neither is recommended (Sánchez-Barrioluengo, 2014). Therefore, the TT model should be the result of strategic management decisions/priorities and planning (Horner et al., 2019;Siegel, Veugelers, et al., 2007;Siegel & Wright, 2015). ...
... It should be indicated that given the diversity of universities (Grimaldi et al., 2011;Horner et al., 2019), the 'one size-fits-all' model for academic activity -teaching, research as well as related to TT -is not practically applicable and neither is recommended (Sánchez-Barrioluengo, 2014). Therefore, the TT model should be the result of strategic management decisions/priorities and planning (Horner et al., 2019;Siegel, Veugelers, et al., 2007;Siegel & Wright, 2015). Research results (Caldera & Debande, 2010) confirm that the existence of intermediary organizations such as TTO should be part of a wider university policy regarding TT. ...
... Research also shows greater effectiveness in TT when universities have a decentralized TT model, i.e. "the responsibilities for transfer activities are located close to research groups and individuals", while providing them with administrative support (Debackere & Veugelers, 2005). Therefore, the strategic approach to TT at the university level should be operationally implemented at the departmental level and not at a central administration level, and should involve the different departments in building a relevant TT strategy (Horner et al., 2019). ...
Apart from educating students and conducting scientific research, technology transfer (TT) is the third “mission pillar” of modern universities. TT from universities to business as a source of innovations and inventions is, on the one hand, an important factor in socio-economic development, on the other hand, it generates income for universities and, by creating links with market practice, also affects their scientific development and quality of teaching. However, due to its complexity and due to the pluralism and heterogeneity of the approaches involved in TT processes at a country (or even regional) level, participation is a difficult challenge for the academic community. In the article the main factors influencing TT between universities and business are identified and a relevant process emphasizing into the requirements of universities being freshmen in this field is presented. In the frame of the current work a two-fold approach was applied: (a) a literature collection and review were undertaken aiming at identifying TT-related methods, tools, procedures and best practices across universities at an international level and (b) an detailed analysis of the TT-related procedures at the four European universities participating in the study.
... Even though the process does need to be sequential, a key point is recognizing that a specific domain is a priority. Horner et al. (2019Horner et al. ( , p. 1299) note the importance for universities "to make appropriate choices about strategic priorities with regards to the type of technology transfer and the specific scientific fields". Furthermore, Giuri et al. (2019) observe that changes in priorities need to be tailored to an institution's identity, culture, and ecosystem. ...
... Even though digital agriculture has become a main technological topic, the institution does not systematically provide support for extensive Technology Readiness Level (TRL) development, as it primarily focuses on more traditional and specific domains of agricultural institutions, such as vitroplants and genetic resources. As highlighted by Horner et al. (2019), it is prudent to act strategically by carefully selecting which digital tools to promote. While support services are available, a systematic strategic approach is applied to the development of "non-standard" research outputs, particularly since these outputs are uncertain in terms of direct financial returns. ...
This article focuses on researchers who are using the outputs of their scientific research to develop decision
support systems (DSS) to advanced technology readiness levels. By taking their DSS beyond the published proofs
of concept level, they are assuming the role of intrapreneurs. We examine the role and motivations of individual
researchers in producing these DSS in relation to the main organizational barriers and opportunities presented by
their home institution. The study is based on interviews with researchers, computer engineers, support services
staff, and senior-level managers at CIRAD, a French agricultural research for development institute. Our findings
reveal that individual motivations are key and often clash with institutional concerns regarding products that fall
outside the institution’s usual field of expertise. Research institutions should consider carefully the relevance of
investing in the development of finalized DSS given the time and effort required from researchers. This study
offers a perspective on intrapreneurship processes, highlighting the motivations of researchers to generate impact
outside academia and the opportunities and conflicts emerging from the internal realities of research institutions.
... Policy support includes internal university and national policies. Within the scope of the university includes incentives (Horner et al., 2019), universities' royalty sharing policy (Caldera & Debande, 2010), the incubation program (Wonglimpiyarat, 2016), and earmarking funding to support proof-of-concept (POC) programs in order to bring inventions closer to the market by reducing risk for potential investors (Swamidass, 2013) While the national scope includes legislative/ institutional, direct financing, and competence building (Kochenkova et al., 2016), the form can be patent regulations (Fini et al., 2011) and giving a sizable investment in university R&D (Jung & Kim, 2018). In practice, such as bringing money directly to universities as is implemented in the UK or supporting new ventures of high technology as part of a technological entrepreneurship policy in France (Mustar & Wright, 2010). ...
... • At the university level, bringing public money directly to universities. Meanwhile, at the national level, the development of high technology of new ventures as part of a technological entrepreneurship policy (Mustar & Wright, 2010) • Role of policy related to legislative/institutional, direct financial, and competence building (Kochenkova et al., 2016) • For university level, incentives have a greater impact on the effectiveness of technology transfer (Horner et al., 2019) • Policy on universities' royalty sharing strongly affects licensing income. Also, policy of university in encouraging academic scientists to create more spin-offs (Caldera & Debande, 2010) • ...
p>Technology commercialization in universities which consists of three phases, namely basic research, commercialization feasibility, and commercialization runs non-linearly and goes through licensing and spin-off creation. To achieve commercialization success, there are eight influencing factors, namely academic entrepreneur, role of technology, availability of market, availability of finance, intermediaries' support (i.e. University Technology Transfer Office (UTTO), university's incubator, and proof of concept center), role of collaborative research center, policy support, and regional infrastructure and environment. Meanwhile, the existing management theories that discuss the commercialization of technology in universities mostly use a resource perspective such as Resource-Based View (RBV), resource orchestration theory, and dynamic capabilities with university and spin-offs as unit of analysis. This literature study provides several recommendations for future studies. First, it needs to expand the analysis not limited to licensing and spin-off, and second, it is suggested to develop a resource perspective by enriching what dimensions influence the success of a technology commercialization in universities or provide alternative new management theories in understanding technology commercialization in university.</p
... Our paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, we enrich the literature on factors affecting university technology transfer [17,38,39]. This paper finds that infrastructure, namely, HSR is an essential factor affecting university technology transfer. ...
... Prior studies argued that formal factors could impact university technology transfer, such as strategic choice [38], university-industry cooperation research centers [16], university technology transfer offices [17], university incubators [18], government regulation [19], and research outcome quality [39]. Besides, the informal factors also play an important role in university technology transfer, including developed factor market [43], inventors' technology service [20], geographic reach [44,45] and culture [21]. ...
Prior studies ignore the impact of infrastructure on university technology transfer. High-speed rail, China's most significant infrastructure, has played an essential role in the economy and society. Using high-speed railway construction as a quasi-experiment and a large sample of Chinese universities for the 2007-2017 period, we investigate the impact of high-speed rail on university technology transfer. We provide extensive evidence that high-speed rail has a positive effect on university technology transfer. The finding remains valid after a battery of robustness tests. Mechanism tests find that high-speed rail can improve university technology transfer by promoting the interaction between universities and enterprises and improving enterprises' technology demand for universities. Further analysis shows that better intellectual property protection strengthens the effect of high-speed rail on university technology transfer, and the relationship between high-speed rail and university technology transfer is more prominent in the regions with underdevelopment technology trading markets. Our study suggests that high-speed rail is an important variable that affects university technology transfer.
... With the gradual deepening of the dilemma of low-carbon technology transfer applications, scholars have started to focus on studies related to LCTT. However, these studies have mainly focused on exploring the core factors of technology transfer out of universities and research institutes from the perspective of these institutions (Bruneel et al., 2010;Horner et al., 2019) or on revealing the factors influencing the introduction of low-carbon technologies by enterprises from the perspective of enterprises (SenGupta and Ray, 2017;Jefferson et al., 2017;Weckowska et al., 2018). Although these studies provide a crucial foundation for research, they involve few dynamic processes of LCTT. ...
... According to these studies, the quantity and quality of technology transfer in Chinese universities is lower than that in developed countries, such as the United States and Japan, owing to differences in funding, human resources input, and incentive systems (Ye et al., 2015). Given the above differences in transfer levels, technology transfer in universities is largely influenced by internal factors such as R&D capacity, university management mechanisms, resource conditions, and university social network (Bruneel et al., 2010;Horner et al., 2019) and by external factors such as government funding, market demand, transferee reputation, and availability of intermediary services (Jefferson et al., 2017;SenGupta and Ray, 2017;Weckowska et al., 2018). ...
This study uses the evolutionary game model to construct a three-party game relationship consisting of a low-carbon technology sender and receiver along with government participation. Additionally, based on the Green Technology Bank case, we demonstrate the impact of various factors on the three parties' choice of low-carbon technology transfer strategy in the game.
... Ejemplos de estos factores son las redes sociales [3], lo s límites organizacionales [4], los incentivos y la existencia de oficinas de transferencia de tecnología en las universidades [4], las normas que regulan la transferencia de tecnología y la propiedad intelectual [5], entre otros, entre los que se destacan el tiempo que manejan tanto las universidades como las empresas que forman parte de las diferentes industrias, para desarrollar y madurar tecnologías. ...
... Ejemplos de estos factores son las redes sociales [3], lo s límites organizacionales [4], los incentivos y la existencia de oficinas de transferencia de tecnología en las universidades [4], las normas que regulan la transferencia de tecnología y la propiedad intelectual [5], entre otros, entre los que se destacan el tiempo que manejan tanto las universidades como las empresas que forman parte de las diferentes industrias, para desarrollar y madurar tecnologías. ...
... According to Wright, Siegel, and Mustar (2017), there are a number of factors that influence the effectiveness of university-based ecosystems. For example, the extent to which entrepreneurship is embedded in all disciplines and courses, university support systems, presence of business incubators or accelerators as well as links to the regional ecosystem (Horner, Jayawarna, Giordano, & Jones, 2019;Jones, Meckel, & Taylor, 2021a;Wright et al., 2017). Data for Longva (2021) study were collected from universities in three regions of Norway and included interview with student entrepreneurs, educators and ecosystem actors ...
... Nevertheless, it is important to point out that a university ecosystem needs to be fully integrated internally as well as linked to the external ecosystem to ensure students obtain full value from their social networks. In practice, it is often the case that universities are limited in their ability to provide a coherent service to would-be entrepreneurs or to link to the regional business environment (Horner et al., 2019). Longva This gives rise to important implications for policymakers, who must adapt policies and support systems carefully to fit existing entrepreneurial ecosystems. ...
... Despite increased levels of patenting across all types of universities, the efficiency of commercialization efforts across institutions varies significantly (Chapple et al., 2005a;Siegel and Wright, 2015a;Wright et al., 2008). It is increasingly acknowledged that not all universities may be able to productively engage in technology commercialization (Siegel and Wright, 2015b), yet commercialization remains an important priority for university administrators (Horner et al., 2019;Lockett et al., 2015;Siegel and Wright, 2015b). This is largely due to competitive and financial pressures facing universities and the perceived complementarities to the wider research mission of universities (Larsen, 2011;Siegel and Wright, 2015b). ...
... Our insights have important implications for two specific streams of academic research. First, a rich body of research on the commercialization of university patents acknowledges how difficult it is for universities to attract licensees for technologies that are often times new, unproven and hardly developed (Bozeman et al., 2015;Horner et al., 2019). Existing research suggests that some university characteristics are associated with higher licensing revenues, for example research quality 2 (Hewitt-Dundas, 2012;Lach and Schankerman, 2004;Sengupta and Ray, 2017), past licensing performance (Conti and Gaule, 2011;Heisey and Adelman, 2011;Sengupta and Ray, 2017), and incentive structures for academic inventors (Arqué-Castells et al., 2016;Belenzon and Schankerman, 2009;Lach and Schankerman, 2004). ...
The licensing of university technologies to private firms has become an important part of the technology transfer mission of many universities. An inherent challenge for the technology licensing of universities is that potential licensees find it difficult to judge the early stage technologies and their ultimate commercial value. We reason that patent litigation against universities can have unintended signaling effects about the commercial value of its technologies and results in increased licensing income for the university. We ground this hypothesis in theory integrating signaling mechanisms from patent enforcement research into theoretical models explaining university technology licensing. Within our logic, the public and costly nature of patent litigation against universities creates strong, credible signals to potential licensees about the technologies of a university even if the signal was not created for that specific purpose. We isolate the signaling mechanism that is central to our theorizing by exploring two moderation factors that reveal additional information to potential licensees, i.e. the licensing track-record of the university and whether the lawsuit involves private firms as co-defendants. We test our theory with a unique dataset of 157 US universities and the 1408 patent infringement cases in which they were involved as defendants over the period 2005–2016. Results show that defending against claims of patent infringement enhances technology licensing revenues, particularly when universities are already adept at licensing technology and when they are co-defendants with private firms.
... environment perspective. Based on the information asymmetry theory, we argue that IPR enforcement intensity acts as a signal to both firms providing funds and universities transferring technologies (Horner et al., 2019;Safari, 2017). Second, this study empirically examines the moderating role of IPR enforcement in the relationship between industrial funding and university technology transfer by measuring province-level IPR enforcement in China (Khoury et al., 2014). ...
... We distinguish between IPR enforcement efficiency and capacity and observe the differences between provinces over the years (Ang et al., 2014). Third, this study extends the application of the information asymmetry theory, which indicates that IPR enforcement serves as a signal for industry funding and increases university technology transfer (Horner et al., 2019). ...
Industrial funding eases the pressure on universities to raise research funding and actively contribute to university–industry (U–I) collaboration. However, whether industrial funding facilitates university technology transfer remains an open question, and we lack an understanding of the mechanisms that moderate this linkage. This study presents a framework and empirical analysis of the relationship between industrial funding and university technology transfer. Moreover, we examined the role of intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement in moderating the focal relationship. We constructed a unique database by linking university- and province-level data, applying negative binomial regression analysis, finding that higher industrial funding has a positive effect on the promotion of U–I technology transfer. Furthermore, the results show that IPR enforcement significantly moderates the focal relationship. Our study highlights the role of industrial funding and offers implications for policymakers focusing on strengthening IPR enforcement in developing countries.
... Within the framework of these technology transfer processes, the following factors are taken into account: the generation of innovation in organizations [16], social capital [17] involved in the social networks of the actors who participate in the technology transfer [18], their interactions [19] and their previous relationships [20]; the university-industry relationships [21], the formality of the process (which can be formal or informal) according to knowledge management and the interactions between actors [17], [22], the limits of organizations and incentives [23], economic benefits e.g. profits on patents [24], technological cooperation between organizations [24], patents seen as a transfer mechanism [18], [25], the business culture that universities can adopt [21], the option of allowing students to participate in industry [17], the culture of the parties [17], legal frameworks [24], the uncertainties of innovations involved in technology transfer processes [26], and the importance of considering the intellectual property in the processes [13], [27]. ...
... In turn, at the macroeconomic level, technology transfer can be measured through business creation and job creation [30]. Additionally, other ways of identifying the success of technology transfer have been through the licensing of inventions [20], [24], incentives for personnel who participate in technology transfer processes [23], the indicators of patent families [24], and knowledge intensive entrepreneurship at universities [30]. ...
... Within the UK, changes in policy interventions have resulted in KE being recognized as a core strategic operation for universities (Lockett et al., 2015). UK universities have had to strategically respond to such external challenges, altering their engagement in research, teaching, and KE to compete for public and private sector funding (Hayter et al., 2020;Hewitt-Dundas, 2012;Horner et al., 2019). Fundamentally, KE has become an important capability (Sengupta & Rossi, 2023) for universities to demonstrate economic and social impact to funders. ...
Knowledge exchange (KE) is becoming a strategic imperative for universities globally. Research examining KE has tended to focus on a limited and select group of stakeholders. This paper builds on calls for a wider consideration of KE activities and other contributors to the KE agenda. The technical community is one such group that has received little attention or acknowledgement of their part in KE. We argue that the technical community makes a significant yet overlooked contribution to a broad array of KE activities. Technicians are problem solvers that often undertake work that their academic counterparts could not do—as users and managers of complex equipment to enable innovation. To date the literature provides limited understanding of the technician’s role and a lack of conceptualization of the contribution of technicians in KE. Adopting a micro-foundation approach, we present a conceptual framework which draws on the multi-level categories of individuals, processes and structures. We take a broader perspective of KE by including activities such as working with external businesses, enabling access to facilities and providing analysis, and contributing to public engagement and training. By synthesizing contemporary research with recent policy work we reveal the potential contribution of technician’s talent, know-how and boundary spanning activities. We conclude with a structured agenda and conceptual framework to help guide future research, showing how investigating the integration of individual, process and structural factors affecting technicians can help reveal new insights into KE capability development at the university level.
... The significance of strategic planning at universities has been heightened due to various factors, including global public policies, the process of globalisation, advancements in technology, changes in the working environment, reduced public funding, and the influence of students on the higher education system. The increasing emphasis on the quality agenda in higher education, which centres on the utilisation of quantitative performance indicators and institutional rankings, necessitates that institutions revise their methods to plan development and implementation (Horner, Jayawarna, Giordano & Jones, 2019;Shah, 2013). ...
Background: Universities affect their communities and ecosystems both directly and indirectly. The strategic plans of all Turkish universities with Higher Education Council accreditation were thoroughly examined within this context. An ecosystem where digital technologies are used more efficiently and extensively is necessary for the ideal of a more sustainable environment and a world with happy people. Purpose: This study's main aim was to discover how universities in Türkiye predict the digital age via the emphasis they place on digital themes in their future plans. Study design/methodology/approach: The content analysis technique utilised within the scope of document analysis was chosen as the best method to satisfy this study's objectives. Findings/conclusions: The study found five main themes regarding the future of higher education based on codes obtained from university strategic plans. Digital transformation, digital campus, digital education, digital infrastructure, and future-focused units were these themes. We analysed the content of these five areas in connection with four types of universities around the country to see if there was a significant difference in attitude towards the digital age. Only future-focused units significantly distinguished these four types of universities, it was found. Limitations/future research: The research primarily examined the digital age themes that are evident in the strategic plans of universities. Academic studies for future research may involve an examination of the content of strategic plans in relation with different themes and categorizations. The collected results might be subjected to comparisons in order to assess the effectiveness of strategic plans.
... However, in general, there is a controversial debate about the performance of TTOs and evidence regarding their impact on venture creation is ambiguous (see, e.g.,Bourelos et al. 2012;Brettel et al., 2013, Chapple et al., 2005, Horner et al., 2019.Hayter (2016a), for instance, points out that TTOs often rather strengthen the academic nature of spin-offs than bridge between the two spheres. ...
Plain English Summary
Venturing scientists need to navigate the changing relevance of the academic and commercial spheres throughout the academic spin-off creation process. Strikingly, the influence of the commercial sphere dominates the process early on.
We investigate how scientists’ embeddedness in two opposing spheres — the academic sphere and the commercial sphere — affects the process of academic spin-off (ASO) creation. These spheres have contrasting institutional and normative structures that influence scientists’ behavior. We conceptually divide the ASO process into distinct phases, starting with the research phase and concluding with the establishment of the spin-off. Venturing scientists need to transition along these phases. We observe that the level of embeddedness in both spheres influences the success of these transitions. Furthermore, the commercial sphere holds greater importance than the academic sphere, right from the outset of the ASO process. To support the creation of spin-offs, policymakers should focus on facilitating scientists’ exposure to the commercial sphere. This can be achieved by implementing entrepreneurship education initiatives and encouraging scientists to gain industry experience. Additionally, academic institutions can play a vital role in supporting scientists by reducing administrative burdens and recognizing their entrepreneurial efforts alongside their academic qualifications. Future research could expand our understanding of the relative importance of both spheres in other contexts, such as social entrepreneurship, where commercial and social-oriented logics converge.
... (Dean Icarus, reflective essay) Universities are recognized as particularly political organizations due to their diverse populations and limited resources, leading to conflicting interests and expectations among members (Marginson, 2013;Anderes, 2019). Horner et al. (2019) argued that the formation of a dominant coalition is crucial for making strategic decisions within universities, as power-holders decide on courses of action. Along the same line, a participant expressed: ...
... On the basis of the perspective of knowledge flow, universities are undoubtedly evolving into knowledge exporters and creators, while enterprises become knowledge importers and users. According to the duality of the innovation value chain theory, the process of knowledge flow involves knowledge creation and knowledge transfer [1,12,13]. The local government can formulate policies to encourage universities and enterprises to organize innovative cooperation activities and expand university-enterprise knowledge flow through financial investment [9]. ...
Government financial investment has been increasingly adopted as a policy support to stimulate university–enterprise cooperation, however, empirical research from the perspective of knowledge flow remains limited. We reason that school–enterprise knowledge flow can be divided into dual stages, namely, knowledge creation and knowledge transfer, and this dual efficiency can be measured with the super-efficiency DEA model. The results show that the average value of knowledge creation efficiency (KCE) is higher than knowledge transfer efficiency (KTE). We adopt the Dynamic Generalized Spatial Model method to study the effect of government support on knowledge flow dual efficiency, and the regression results show that government support has a nonlinear effect on KCE while having a positive impact on KTE. We find that intergovernmental competition has a moderating influence on the relationship between government support and dual efficiency. Fiscal transparency can enhance the moderating effect of intergovernmental competition.
... Curi et al. (2015) discovered through research that French Technology Transfer Office (TTO) played an important role in helping France promote the efficiency of corporate technology transfer. Sengupta and Ray (2017a), Horner et al. (2019), andArque-Castells et al. (2016) emphasized that economic benefits were an important criterion when evaluating technology transfer success. As a special commodity, technology has its unique pricing mechanism. ...
The application of digital information and computing technology can significantly improve cooperation between different enterprises and the efficiency of knowledge and resources management, while facilitating the participation of partners in various technological innovation activities. The choice of digital information technology by traditional enterprises and the transfer of digital information technology between enterprises are key issues in the application of industrial digitalisation at this stage, and it is necessary to explore their transfer strategies and operational mechanisms theoretically. In this paper, a digital information technology transfer system consisting of a high-tech enterprise and two heterogeneous manufacturing enterprises is simulated and constructed using the Stackelberg game approach. This system can help high-tech enterprises choose the optimal digital information technology transfer strategy, while promoting the digital transformation and upgrading development of traditional manufacturing enterprises.
... Por otro lado, definir claramente las prioridades estratégicas con respecto a la transferencia de tecnología alentaría a las universidades a centrarse en establecer un conjunto de incentivos y apoyo organizativo estratégico a medida más estrechamente alineados a contextos universitarios específicos y especialidades de investigación para reducir algunas de las ineficiencias actuales y fomentar una mayor eficacia en la transferencia de tecnología (Horner, Jayawarna, Giordano, & Jones, 2019). ...
Las universidades son agentes de desarrollo tecnológico que propenden por la generación de mejores escenarios de desarrollo sostenible, y para lograrlo utilizan herramientas como la transferencia tecnológica. Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar el estudio de caso que evidencia la transferencia tecnológica realizada por la Corporación Universitaria del Caribe CECAR, ubicada en Sincelejo (Colombia). Dicha investigación comprende un estudio de tipo descriptivo de carácter documental con enfoque cualitativo. Los resultados obtenidos, muestran que CECAR, genera proyectos que se gestan desde los diferentes Grupos de Investigación y que son transferidos por medio de su Centro de Emprendimiento y su Oficina de Transferencia Tecnológica – OTRI. Se concluye que CECAR, por medio de la transferencia tecnológica busca generar competitividad y sostenibilidad en el ámbito económico y social de la región.
... Internet de las cosas: se refiere a los escenarios en los que la conectividad de la red y la capacidad de cómputo se amplían para hacer funcionar objetos, sensores y artículos de uso cotidiano a dispositivos a externos a computadoras, que permiten la generación, intercambio y consumo de datos con una mínima participación de personas (Rose, et.al, 2015) Gestión de proyectos: se refieren a la aplicación de conocimientos habilidades, herramientas y técnicas a las actividades necesarias para alcanzar los propósitos del proyecto (Horner et al., 2019). ...
"El genocidio digital"
El artículo que nos ocupa se inscribe en los cambios paradigmáticos de una revolución tecnológica, donde las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación -TIC-, así como las nuevas plataformas de conectividad, permiten al mundo de nuestros días construir una civilización cibernética, basada en inteligencia artificial y una infraestructura digital que facilite entender los retos para los gobiernos modernos el comprender la innovación como un mecanismo democrático que garantice mejores niveles de educación, salud y servicios en general, con la finalidad de lograr un estado que enarbole los principios históricos de las gestas revolucionarias que han prevalecido en la historia de las naciones: igualdad, libertad y justicia.
Asimismo, destaca la brecha digital como el genocidio de esa civilización al mantener los índices de pobreza y miseria que acompañan la exclusión digital.
... Internet de las cosas: se refiere a los escenarios en los que la conectividad de la red y la capacidad de cómputo se amplían para hacer funcionar objetos, sensores y artículos de uso cotidiano a dispositivos a externos a computadoras, que permiten la generación, intercambio y consumo de datos con una mínima participación de personas (Rose, et.al, 2015) Gestión de proyectos: se refieren a la aplicación de conocimientos habilidades, herramientas y técnicas a las actividades necesarias para alcanzar los propósitos del proyecto (Horner et al., 2019). ...
... Internet de las cosas: se refiere a los escenarios en los que la conectividad de la red y la capacidad de cómputo se amplían para hacer funcionar objetos, sensores y artículos de uso cotidiano a dispositivos a externos a computadoras, que permiten la generación, intercambio y consumo de datos con una mínima participación de personas (Rose, et.al, 2015) Gestión de proyectos: se refieren a la aplicación de conocimientos habilidades, herramientas y técnicas a las actividades necesarias para alcanzar los propósitos del proyecto (Horner et al., 2019). ...
... Similarly, Thursby and Kemp (2002) confirmed that larger TTOs are more likely to have more licensing agreements. Horner et al. (2019) corroborates that organizational design and technical human capital are important characteristics that influence the effectiveness of technology transfer. ...
The university’s role in reaping the benefits from research by transforming knowledge and technology into commercially usable forms is becoming increasingly important. In this article, we seek to deepen the understanding of the technology transfer office (TTO). TTOs are primarily responsible for the protection of university created intellectual property (IP) and the management of the commercialization process. The aim of this study is to determine which internal efficiency factors are statistically significant for the efficiency of TTOs, and which barriers cited in literature are experienced by TTOs, and to, furthermore, compare these between developed and developing economies. To achieve this objective, we created a survey that was sent to 103 TTO’s distributed in 21 countries. Our results demonstrate that it is apparent that developed economies (EU and UK) have overcome certain barriers experienced by developing economies (BRA, ISA and SA). Additionally, this paper has shown that TTOs have a built-in conflict with researchers. The results also emphasize the important role of networking and industry links.
... The institutional factors are the role of the TTO, the project initiative and the institutional system. The role of the TTO involves, among others, providing institutional support (availability of resources, organisational structure, and clarity in the roles), as well as guaranteeing exclusivity to negotiate the HEI's intangible assets (Horner et al., 2019). The second institutional factor refers to the origin of the project -whether it stems from an express need of the industry or from the researchers' own initiative (Toscano et al., 2017). ...
The generation of new knowledge derived from research in higher education institutions (HEIs) is a practice that bolsters the development and innovation capabilities of the social and productive sector, but there are some limitations regarding knowledge transfer or commercialisation. In this article, the key factors which positively affect new knowledge commercialisation (NKC) are analysed. Drawing on a number of interviews with directors of technology transfer offices (TTOs), a roadmap is established which highlights the following factors: the researcher's entrepreneurial and academic profiles; networking; the role of TTOs, the research initiative; and the institutional system. This study makes an essential contribution to understanding how new knowledge should be commercialised, which factors are essential for the transfer of new knowledge to the social and productive sector, and which stakeholders other than HEIs must be involved in a successful commercialisation process.
Much of the existing research on PhD entrepreneurship is focused on Academic Spin-Offs (ASOs) within the parent institution’s formal intellectual property (IP) structure. Cross-level analysis of a survey administered to 23,500 PhD students in Italy shows the heterogeneity of PhD students’ entrepreneurial activities, which, in addition to ASOs, include start-ups, corporate spin-offs and other types of businesses. We examine the types of drivers that matter most for different forms of PhD entrepreneurial ventures. Our findings reveal two forces at play: a technology-push model where PhD students rely on IP and support from the parent university, and a demand-led model that involves support from industry and sources of external finance. This study highlights the strategic alignment among the determinants of PhD entrepreneurship at the micro, meso and macro levels. These determinants include the individual PhD student’s choices, the interactions with different stakeholders and reconciliation of the tensions represented by the organizational and institutional resources and infrastructures.
To promote university patent transfer (UPT) and technology diffusion, the Chinese government has implemented a series of economic incentives. One such incentive involves increasing the share rate of faculty inventors from 20% to 50%. We investigate whether such sharing arrangements are effective in encouraging patent disclosure by faculty inventors and in ultimately enhancing UPT performance. To conduct our empirical analysis, we selected the top 35 universities in China based on their rankings in terms of patent applications and collected comprehensive data pertaining to their patent applications and faculty inventors. A regression model based on propensity score matching was developed to obtain the results. The results demonstrate that the economic incentives of increased inventor share rates only partly achieved the policy goals. Specifically, increasing the inventor’s share of equity exhibits positive influences on faculty invention disclosure rates at both the faculty and patent levels but a negative impact at the university level. It also leads to an improvement in university UPT performance. In contrast, increasing the inventor’s share of royalty fails to produce the desired effect. It does not significantly contribute to promoting invention disclosure or UPT performance. From these results, this study provides better ways for Chinese university administrators and policymakers to improve the future of invention disclosures and UPT.
The mixed-ownership reform of job invention achievements (MOJIA) is an important exploration of China’s sound long-term incentive mechanism for transforming job-related inventions. Based on the data of MOJIA pilot universities and regions from 2012 to 2022, this paper analyzes the relationship and mechanism between MOJIA and university innovation (UI) in China by combining resource dependence theory and institutional theory. The study found that MOJIA has a promotive effect on UI. The findings continue to hold after using parallel trend tests, lagged regressions, alternative UI measures, endogeneity control, and placebo tests. MOJIA can enhance the technology achievement marketability in the regions where universities are located. Moreover, MOJIA can facilitate the technological achievements marketability by improving UI. Heterogeneity analysis found that the lower the administrative level and the university’s social reputation, the stronger the promotion effect of MOJIA on UI. The research in this paper provides implications for further improving MOJIA.
We analyze the initial intellectual property (IP) decisions of 336 start-ups in IP-intensive industries in China, distinguishing among patents, trademarks, and IP portfolios. Our empirical results show that the initial IP decisions of start-ups have an impact on their innovation performance. Compared with start-ups that choose trademarks or patents, start-ups that choose IP portfolios have higher financial and non-financial innovation performance. Furthermore, venture capital positively moderates the relationship between initial IP decisions and non-financial innovation performance. VC-backed start-ups that choose IP portfolios are more likely than other start-ups to achieve higher non-financial innovation performance. Finally, strategic planning also plays a role in the relationship. Among the start-ups that choose IP portfolios, those with high strategic planning gain higher non-financial innovation performance. This paper contributes to research on initial IP decisions in entrepreneurial contexts by incorporating IP portfolios to initial IP decisions and uncovering the role of initial IP decisions in innovation performance.
Purpose
The caring leadership of principals is viewed as a professional method for utilizing emotional capital. The present study investigated the moderating relationship of caring leadership with the associations between emotional geographies, emotional distance and school climate.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from a cross-sectional survey of 305 Israeli teachers working in public schools were used to investigate a model of moderated mediation.
Findings
Caring leadership of principals moderates the association of emotional distance with school climate and is related to mediated associations between emotional geographies and school climate.
Originality/value
This is the first study to combine Hargreaves' theory of emotional geographies of schools with principals' caring leadership, providing insight on the role of school leadership in bridging fundamental gaps between key actors and treating crippling emotional dynamics.
La biotecnología ha sido objeto de estudio no únicamente de biólogos,
biotecnólogos o ecólogos. Las características de dicha tecnología, así
como sus importantes implicaciones en la vida, el medio ambiente,
la sociedad y la economía han motivado el interés de científicos sociales a lo largo de muchos años. Dichas implicaciones hacen que se
expresen expectativas positivas sobre la biotecnología al considerarla
una tecnología disruptiva, capaz de transformar patrones productivos y dinámicas que contribuyan con el aumento de la productividad
de algunos productos o con la mejora de las condiciones tecnológicas de las empresas. Pero, por otro lado, también se generan miedos
y prejuicios sobre los posibles efectos, en muchas ocasiones desconocidos, sobre el medio ambiente y la salud.
La complejidad, la relación cercana con la vida y la incertidumbre indisoluble del desarrollo tecnológico ha dado lugar a diversas
narrativas en torno a la biotecnología, lo que a su vez ha permeado
en distintos grupos sociales, ya que ésta ha sobrepasado los límites
del laboratorio y los foros científicos, y se ha posicionado en la discusión pública entre organizaciones sociales, empresas, científicos,
tecnólogos y políticos, abriendo debates muy diversos que incluyen
cuestiones éticas, sociales, culturales, económicas e institucionales
que están lejos de ser zanjados y que, por el contrario, cada vez abren
más discusiones dada la evolución que ha tenido la tecnología y sus
posibles ventajas y riesgos.
El principal objetivo de este libro es contribuir con la importante
tradición de estudios sobre la biotecnología en México y ofrecer un
panorama actual en torno a diversas problemáticas que enfrenta la
producción científica, tecnológica y de innovación, así como algunos
de los conflictos y controversias que durante los últimos 50 años han
permeado al desarrollo de esta tecnociencia en el país.
El libro busca ser un crisol analítico que integra visiones teóricas
y metodológicas diversas con enfoques multidisciplinarios, lo que
nos ha permitido tener espacios de convergencia y discusión entre
las dos tradiciones analíticas más importantes: los estudios sobre
ciencia, tecnología y sociedad, y la perspectiva de la economía de la
innovación.
The fragmentation of the literature on intermediaries between the university and industry has led to a disorganised and confused theoretical landscape. This research addresses this gap in the literature by proposing an analytical tool that can be used as guidance. For this purpose, this work provides a taxonomy of these intermediaries and classifies them into five different classes. To this end, we review 125 studies on university–industry cooperation (UIC) intermediaries. In addition to the general and innovation-related information, we extracted specific data related to the relevant UIC intermediaries from each article, i.e. the type(s) of intermediary addressed and its identified functions. This taxonomy is based on twenty-two functions identified in the UIC intermediary literature and thirteen UIC intermediary types. The five proposed classes of intermediaries are specialised in five different roles. This integrative background can be applied in future research and in the definition of policy-based guidelines.
Given that technology transfer provides an important boost for promoting national economic development, technology transfer policy (TTP) has attracted more and more attention from academia and industry. The government issued many policies. However, the implementation effect of TTP still needs to be clarified. This study is carried out from the progressive level of “text content-influence path-implementation effect.’’ It aims to adopt a systematic analysis method to analyze policy tools and policy implementation stages, then builds a conceptual framework of the influence path of TTP. Then the relationship between variables in the qualitative model was clarified, and the system dynamics (SD) model was used to build a quantitative model with four feedback loops. Finally, taking Liaoning, China as an example, the system simulation and sensitivity analysis of the main parameters are implemented in Vensim PLE. Different policy tools have different roles in the TTP impact stages of research, transfer, and industrialization. Based on the data of 2013–1019, the SD model constructed in this paper can be used to predict the implementation effect of TTP during 2020–2015. Simulation and sensitivity analysis results provide practical enlightenment for government departments to improve the implementation effect of the existing TTP. This study also provides other researchers with a systematic understanding for improving the implementation effect of TTP with a "text content-influence path-implementation effect" conduction chain and provides new insights for further research on TTP.
Technology transfer from public research institutes (PRIs) to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) facilitated by intermediary agents such as Research Scientists and Engineers (RSEs) has received limited attention. Similarly, the literature on intermediary agents has overlooked the reverse knowledge flow benefits enjoyed by the RSEs who facilitate technology transfer. Motivated by these gaps, we aim to answer the following research question: What characteristics and conditions of technology transfer determine the intangible benefits attained by technology transfer intermediary agents? To do so, we leverage the unique research context of the Technology Upgrading (T-Up) transfer policy in Singapore that commissions PRIs to impart technology capabilities in SMEs, facilitated by RSEs who move between organizations to carry out the transfer. Supported by an in-depth field study and survey data from multiple stakeholders that participated in the technology transfer, we apply fuzzy sets qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze the configuration of factors influencing the reverse knowledge flow benefits attained by the technology transfer intermediary agents. Our findings on the mutually reinforcing nature of intermediary agent-recipient benefits have important implications for research and practice.
Despite being considered as the key provider of industry technology, universities still have a prominent issue of low efficiency in technology transfer. Understanding university technology transfer (UTT) efficiency from a decomposed perspective is essential because it traces the specific difficulties and UTT's improvement path. This study quantifies UTT efficiency from a sequential process encompassing research innovation, experimental development, and value creation stages in 31 Chinese universities. Based on the Dynamic Network Slacks-based Measurement (DNSBM) model, the stage efficiencies, inter-stage linkage efficiencies, and inter-period carry-over efficiencies can be evaluated. A Malmquist decomposition is further carried out to infer the paths and restrictions of efficiency enhancement. The results reveal that: 1) performance varies greatly across the three stages of UTT in China and the detachment of R&D and value creation efficiencies is prominent; 2) inter-stage linking efficiency losses manifest themselves in R&D output redundancy and trial contract inadequacy, while carry-over efficiency losses are primarily reflected in insufficient dynamic accumulation of funds; and 3) technical efficiency improvement plays a dominant role in total factor productivity (TFP) growth, particularly in the value creation stage. Breaking the barriers of TFP growth in the research innovation and experimental development stages hinges on technology progress, implying more resources should be allocated to improving R&D quality and trial success.
This study identifies and discusses strategies for enhancing the efficiency of technology transferring from university to the industrial sector, concerning activities carried out by Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). The study answers two research questions: (i) What barriers hamper academic research transferring to industry? (ii) What are the inbound and outbound strategies for transferring academic research results to industry? Our findings show that the main barriers that hamper technology transfer are related to organizational, technical, human, and cultural factors comprising the academic and industrial environments. Regarding strategies, our findings reveal a comprehensive list of inbound and outbound strategies that might be implemented to cope with the ambidextrous nature of the TTOs and increase technology transfer. Finally, we discuss our findings and the relationship between the main barriers and the boundary-spanning strategies to support a more effective Technology Transfer process.
Improperly planned capital investments in new technologies could result in lost productivity for e-procurement and supply chain managers in the e-commerce industries. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the qualitative multiple case study design was used to explore strategies business managers use to adopt technology innovations to improve product marketing and profitability. Participants were five supply chain business managers and owners from five separate organizations in the southwestern region of the United States. Data were collected via responses submitted through Google Forms and emails, written logs, telephone calls, and recorded audio. Thematic analysis resulted in two key themes: perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. A key recommendation is implementing strategies that involve agile and lean thinking processes, artificial intelligence, and automation. Implications for positive social change include the potential to improve the customer experience while contributing to a sustainable environment.
Introduction. Modern libraries do their best to increase public access to relevant information and knowledge with the help of modern digital technologies. Libraries supported by national governments and international non-governmental organizations provide the development of all sectors of society. Therefore, new opportunities for libraries are an important strategic task both for the state and the libraries themselves. The current global practices of diversifying library activities proved quite effective as they meet the challenges of digitalization and experience economy. However, they should be implemented with respect to the national specifics of the domestic library system. Study objects and methods. The present research was based on the theory and methodology of strategizing developed by V.L. Kvint, Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Honored Worker of the Higher School of the Russian Federation. His scientific theses have been successfully implemented in a number of regional and sectoral strategies. According to the general methodology of strategizing, any search for new opportunities should be preceded by a detailed analysis of global, sectoral, and regional trends. Results and discussion. The present strategic analysis of trends and forecasts for the library industry development in Russia and worldwide revealed a number of unique opportunities, which allow libraries to fit into the life of modern society and endow them with such socially significant functions as education, enlightenment, and promotion of cultural and moral values among young readers. However, the window of opportunities is always short-lived: the libraries should seize the moment to ensure their systematic and progressive development, which is possible only through the development of an effective strategy. Conclusion. The article introduces unique strategic opportunities for the development of the library system in Russia. The authors analyzed the best practices applied by famous libraries in their search for new roles and the domestic library industry in order to determine the strategic directions for the library development in the era of digitalization and experience economy.
Introduction. Modern universities must fulfill the so-called “third mission” and become entrepreneurial (University 3.0). To go through this strategic transformation, universities need new theoretical approaches to strategizing. The research objective was to identify the strategic opportunities of creating an entrepreneurial university in the Kemerovo Region, i.e. interests of its stakeholders, mission, strategic priorities, competitive advantages, etc. Study objects and methods. The research featured the Kemerovo State University as the leading university in the region. It relied on the strategizing theory and methodology developed by V.L. Kvint, Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Science. It involved an analysis of interests and values, an OTSW analysis, the method of strategic priorities and competitive advantages, etc. Results and discussion. The strategic development of the Kemerovo State University as an entrepreneurial university on its way to University 4.0 proved to be possible and expedient. The interests of the main stakeholders coincided in the field of R&D commercialization and the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the university. Global, national, and regional trends determined the potential and expediency of “the third mission” of the Kemerovo State University. The strategizing strengths included a ready-made entrepreneurial training system, innovative infrastructure, competencies, and experience in start-ups, while the low level of entrepreneurial culture appeared to be the most obvious weakness. The article introduces the mission of the Kemerovo State University as an entrepreneurial university. The authors identified five strategic priorities, four of which demonstrated competitive advantages, as well as clear strategic contours and goals. Conclusion. The study can be of interest to management departments of universities that plan their strategic development as entrepreneurial universities.
Governance of universities toward the entrepreneurial university and the link with the organizational role of University Technology Transfer Offices (UTTOs) are studied. A double novel approach is adopted: first, analyzing the visibility of the entrepreneurial strategy followed by the different universities in the system, with a Web Content Analysis of all Spanish universities (seventy-six), and extracting data from official reports; second, with a survey to UTTOs managers (sixteen valid answers). Key aspects of entrepreneurial universities, such as their organizational structure, links between entrepreneurship and research, entrepreneurship education, and the relationships with the ecosystem were analyzed. In addition, the views of UTTOs’ managers about the implementation of the entrepreneurial university in their own institution were studied. As a result, it emerges how the entrepreneurial university strategy is made visible in specific actions such as transversal initiatives, awards to entrepreneurship and initial support. In addition, it has been found that UTTOs managers think that the impact of the entrepreneurial university should be further assessed in order to know the real results of the implementation of such strategy.
The prosperity of the technology transfer process in downstream petrochemical industries is one of the objectives pursued by the policy-makers and planners of these industries. The present study delved into the dynamism of the variables impacting technology transfer capacities by following a system dynamics approach, examining similar studies, and interviewing experts in the downstream petrochemical industries in the polymer pipe and fittings domain. Then, causal loop diagrams were delineated and the causal relationships among variables were examined, and the VENSIM software were used for analyzing the causal loops. Loop analysis implies that the experiences rooted in the recurrence of the technology transfer process under the auspices of international relationships are the main schema of technology transfer and highly influences the principal systems of the technology transfer process. These systems include: (1) abilities to observe, identify, and prioritise technologies, (2) abilities to select, negotiate, conclude contracts, and acquire technologies, (3) abilities to adapt, attract, analyze, and exploit technologies, (4) abilities to develop, innovate, and promote technologies, and (5) abilities to diffuse, preserve, and commercialise technologies. Likewise, the sanctions have severely limited international relationships, declined foreign associate firms’ monitoring and identification rate, and hampered access to the free stream of technology.
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the current situation of the research that analyzes KTT strategies in scientific institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
To systematize the empirical evidence that emerged from academic debates in the field, the study breaks down, through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), 42 papers from the Web of Science database. The author divides the sample into three clusters: environmental impact, institutional effectiveness, and individual strategies, according to its unit of analysis.
Findings
The findings indicate that the alignment of KTT activities with the strategic objectives of the institutions is fundamental for positive outcomes. In addition to that, the resources for obtaining relevant results are the quality and the availability of human capital in scientific institutions, public companies, and support organizations. Finally, there is a stream of research that criticizes the exclusively commercial approach of the phenomenon.
Research limitations -
The Web of Science database relies on being the manly coverage for scientific publications in general. So, due to the choice for composing this sample with papers written only in English, untranslated studies were excluded from this analysis.
Originality/value
The contribution for Literature relies on proposing a future research agenda based on identified gaps and current topics, discussing the results of previous studies that can support the decision-making of these organizations at developing efficient KTT strategies for themselves.
Keywords:
Knowledge and Technology Transfer; Strategies; Systematic Literature Review; Knowledge Dissemination; Scientific Institutions
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the experience of leading university libraries in attracting and using creative industries implementating strategic management. The study was conducted taking into account the previous experience by analyzing and systematizing the regulatory framework, information, and analytical materials on this issue, and conducting personal interviews with librarians. The results and conclusions were obtained on the example of libraries of seven higher educational institutions of Ukraine, which are included in the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education.The paper illustrates an extremely unsatisfactory financial situation and insufficient funding for university libraries. But even in such conditions, they are transformed into informational institutions, which not only provide users with a comfortable educational space but also produce innovative information resources and implement creative projects. The most significant projects are analyzed. All seven libraries have development strategies in which their mission is formalized. In three strategies there are no quantitative guidelines for development and, accordingly, the timing of their achievement. In addition, three strategies do not have the understanding of the need for business activities, and their key business processes are not clearly defined. Another three university libraries lack significant international creative projects. Instead, all seven university libraries recognize the need for creative industries and successfully implement creative projects of national importance.The study emphasizes the need to apply a model of strategic management of creative industries on the example of university libraries.
AcknowledgmentThis scientific paper published with support by British Council’s ‘Creative Spark: Higher Education Enterprise Programme’, project № 5742783597 – the ‘National Сentre for Сreative Entrepreneurship Development’ (NCCE).
In the UK, higher education is increasingly a marketised service sharing many characteristics with other professional services such as legal, medical or financial services. With marketisation comes competition, and the need for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to develop and maintain strong programmes to attract and retain high-class faculty and fee-paying students. Here, we consider the drivers of programme innovation - i.e. the introduction of new programmes and the withdrawal of existing programmes - in UK universities. Our focus is on undergraduate programmes as these account for three-quarters of all student enrolments. Using panel data for UK universities we identify significant resource, internationalisation and business engagement effects. Financial stringency and more extensive international market engagement both encourage programme introduction. Collaboration with businesses has offsetting effects depending on the nature of the interaction. The results have both strategic and systemic implications.
This paper addresses the gap in the knowledge transfer literature around how universities choose specific organizational models for their knowledge transfer offices (KTOs). Organization theory points towards strong interlinkages between strategy, structure and processes in organizations. This motivates an exploration of similar links within the organizational setup of KTOs. In doing so, the paper provides a unified theoretical framework around a university's choice of structure, business model and strategic preferences for their KTOs linked to university-specific contextual factors. A qualitative approach is used wherein four very distinct British universities are examined as individual case studies. The authors find that strategic aims of the university around practitioner engagement, the quantity of applied research and research specialization are key factors in determining the organizational characteristics of the KTO. The theoretical framework derived from the cases makes two key contributions to the university knowledge transfer literature. First, it links the university-level contextual factors to the local model of knowledge transfer. Second, it allows us to develop a set of generic models of knowledge transfer, which can potentially guide universities to develop their own specific models.
Studies that combine moderation and mediation are prevalent in basic and applied psychology research. Typically, these studies are framed in terms of moderated mediation or mediated moderation, both of which involve similar analytical approaches. Unfortunately, these approaches have important shortcomings that conceal the nature of the moderated and the mediated effects under investigation. This article presents a general analytical framework for combining moderation and mediation that integrates moderated regression analysis and path analysis. This framework clarifies how moderator variables influence the paths that constitute the direct, indirect, and total effects of mediated models. The authors empirically illustrate this framework and give step-by-step instructions for estimation and interpretation. They summarize the advantages of their framework over current approaches, explain how it subsumes moderated mediation and mediated moderation, and describe how it can accommodate additional moderator and mediator variables, curvilinear relationships, and structural equation models with latent variables.
The issue of what indicators are most appropriate in order to measure the performance of universities in knowledge transfer (KT) activities remains relatively under-investigated. The main aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the limitations to the current measurements of university-industry KT performance, and propose some directions for improvement. We argue that university-industry KT can unfold in many ways and impact many stakeholders, and that, especially in highly differentiated university systems, choosing indicators focused on a narrow range of activities and impacts might limit the ability of universities to accurately represent their KT performance. Therefore, KT indicators should include a variety of activities and reflect a variety of impacts so as to allow comparability between different institutions and avoid the creation of undesirable behavioural incentives. To illustrate these issues empirically, the authors discuss the case of the United Kingdom's Higher Education-Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) survey.
In this paper we examine the creation and expansion of the English university system. We show how the enormous increase in student numbers, which began with the Robbins Report (1963), led to successive governments cutting universities' funding and compelling them to act more like business enterprises than educational institutions. In turn, vice-chancellors have become more similar to powerful chief executives, collegial forms of control have been significantly reduced and academic staff increasingly work in an environment in which they are told what to teach, how to teach, what research to conduct and where to publish. However, we show that this can be dysfunctional not only for staff, but also for senior managers. In place of this dysfunctional centralism, we argue for a win-win form of collegiality, which is compatible with rapid decision-making at the university centre and effective execution of change at the local/departmental level.
In this article, we provide guidance for substantive researchers on the use of structural equation modeling in practice for theory testing and development. We present a comprehensive, two-step modeling approach that employs a series of nested models and sequential chi-square difference tests. We discuss the comparative advantages of this approach over a one-step approach. Considerations in specification, assessment of fit, and respecification of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis are reviewed. As background to the two-step approach, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory analysis, the distinction between complementary approaches for theory testing versus predictive application, and some developments in estimation methods also are discussed.
This paper critically examines available theoretical models which have been derived from statistically established patterns of association between contextual and organizational variables. These models offer an interpretation of organizational structure as a product of primarily economic constraints which contextual variables are assumed to impose. It is argued that available models in fact attempt to explain organization at one remove by ignoring the essentially political process, whereby power-holders within organizations decide upon courses of strategic action. This `strategic choice' typically includes not only the establishment of structural forms but also the manipulation of environmental features and the choice of relevant performance standards. A theoretical re-orientation of this kind away from functional imperatives and towards a recognition of political action is developed and illustrated in the main body of the paper.
“New leadership” studies often suggest that transformational leadership in particular produces desirable leadership outcomes. However, few studies have demonstrated a direct link between the exercise of a particular type of leadership and organisational effectiveness. Efforts to establish such a link are hampered by the absence of a generally agreed definition of organisational effectiveness. This is particularly true in higher education where attempts to develop models of organisational effectiveness applicable to universities have been sparse despite worldwide calls for universities to demonstrate “value for money” performance. This paper examines the relationship between transformational/transactional leadership and university organisational effectiveness. In the course of the examination, the paper indicates possible modifications to the original conceptualisation of transformational leadership. The paper also argues for university leadership that is self-reflective and capable of utilising the array of leadership characteristics subsumed under the transformational and transactional leadership notions.
Universities throughout Europe have adopted organisational strategies, structures, technologies, management instruments and values that are commonly found in the private sector. While these alleged managerial measures may be considered useful, and have a positive effect on the quality of teaching and research, there is also evidence of detrimental effects on primary tasks. The consequences of such managerial measures were investigated through 48 interviews with staff members at 10 universities in the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. The results were analysed and interpreted within the framework of institutional and professional theory, by linking them to three central themes: ‘symbolic compliance’, ‘professional pragmatism’ and ‘formal instrumentality’. These themes explain why and how the respondents dissociated themselves from the managerial measures imposed upon them. This occurred often for pragmatic and occasionally for principled reasons.
Stevens (1946) asserted that (a) consistency between the scale of measurement that generates a data set and the statistical/mathematical treatment that the data receive is necessary for interpretable results and (b) scale-analysis consistency is achievable by using techniques that are invariant with respect to admissible transformations. A number of individuals have argued for an alternative view that implies little or no relationship between scale of measurement and proper analytical techniques. These counterarguments are criticized. Stevens' original thesis is then reexamined in light of recent work on meaningfulness issues in measurement. The importance of measurement issues for an interpretable analysis is confirmed. However, the invariance criterion for selecting analytical techniques has severe problems, even though it is usually the only practicable criterion available. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We investigate how universities' research quality shapes their engagement with industry. Previous research has predominantly found a positive relationship between academics' research quality and their commercialization activities. Here we use industry involvement measures that are broader than commercialization and indicate actual collaboration, i.e. collaborative research, contract research and consulting. We hypothesise that the relationship between faculty quality and industry engagement differs across disciplines, depending on complementarities between industrial and academic work, and resource requirements. Using a dataset covering all UK universities, we find that in technology-oriented disciplines, departmental faculty quality is positively related to industry involvement. In the medical and biological sciences we find a positive effect of departmental faculty quality but establish that this does not apply to star scientists. In the social sciences, we find some support for a negative relationship between faculty quality and particularly the more applied forms of industry involvement. The implication for science policy makers and university managers is that differentiated approaches to promoting university-industry relationships are required.
The debate on the entrepreneurial university has raised questions about what motivates academic scientists to engage with
industry. This paper provides evidence based on survey data for a large sample of UK investigators in the physical and engineering
sciences. The results suggest that most academics engage with industry to further their research rather than to commercialize
their knowledge. However, there are differences in terms of the channels of engagement. Patenting and spin-off company formation
are motivated exclusively by commercialization whilst joint research, contract research and consulting are strongly informed
by research-related motives. We conclude that policy should refrain from overly focusing on monetary incentives for industry
engagement and consider a broader range of incentives for promoting interaction between academia and industry.
KeywordsUniversity-industry relations–Joint research–Collaborative research–Commercialization–Entrepreneurial university–Motivation
The Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations provides a neo-evolutionary model of the process of innovation that is amenable to measurement. Economic exchange, intellectual organization, and geographical constraints can be considered as different dynamics that interact in a knowledge-based economy as a complex system. Differentiation spans the systems of innovation, while performative integration enables organizations to retain wealth from knowledge. Because of the systematic organization of interfaces among the subsystems under study, different perspectives can be expected in the reflection. Consequences for the heuristics, the research design, and normative implications are specified and the organization of the issue is further explained.
In this paper we relate university licensing revenues to both university research expenditures and characteristics of the
university and the university technology transfer office. We apply the Hausman–Taylor estimator for panel data with time-invariant
explanatory variables and the Arellano–Bover dynamic panel model to unbalanced panels for the years 1991–2003 and balanced
panels for the years 1995–2003. We find conflicting evidence regarding the short-term impacts of research expenditures on
licensing revenues. On the other hand, both early initiation of technology transfer programs and staff size increase expected
licensing revenues. Staff size and early entry appear to be substitutes, however. One-year lagged licensing revenue has strong
predictive power for current licensing revenue. Further research is necessary to analyze changes in technology transfer office
efficiency over time and the contribution of technology transfer to larger university missions.
KeywordsScience policy–Licensing revenue–Research expenditures–Technology transfer–Universities
We propose that scientists use patents/invention disclosures as signals to gain reputation than financial benefits. Based
on a newly created dataset on the commercial activities among 2,500 scientists affiliated with 67 institutes of the German
Max Planck Society, we explore the relation between the expectations of scientists concerning the outcomes of commercial activities
and the likelihood of their patenting and disclosure behaviors. We find that expectation of gaining financial benefits are
not related with the patenting activities of scientists without industrial cooperation. Instead, their expectation to gain/increase
reputation through commercial activities is correlated with their patenting and disclosures activities. This may in turn also
increase the possibility to gain academic promotion, financial benefits through industrial collaboration etc., rather than
the immediate personal financial gains.
This paper considers the case for reform of management structures in UK universities and offers proposals for change. The model of top-down, performance-led management that characterises many institutions is both outmoded and ill-suited to the challenges of an increasingly turbulent higher education sector. Drawing on the experiences of a university that introduced a new scheme of performance management, I explore alternative approaches to leadership and management, collaborative or partnership working designed to improve employee voice and the need to re-evaluate approaches to Human Resource Management. I conclude with a five-point model for change.
Thirty years ago federal policy underwent a major change through the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which fostered greater uniformity in the way research agencies treat inventions arising from the work they sponsor. Before the Act, if government agencies funded university research, the funding agency retained ownership of the knowledge and technologies that resulted. However, very little federally funded research was actually commercialized. As a result of the Act's passage, patenting and licensing activity from such research has accelerated. Although the system created by the Act has remained stable, it has generated debate about whether it might impede other forms of knowledge transfer. Concerns have also arisen that universities might prioritize commercialization at the expense of their traditional mission to pursue fundamental knowledge--for example, by steering research away from curiosity-driven topics toward applications that could yield financial returns. To address these concerns, the National Research Council convened a committee of experts from universities, industry, foundations, and similar organizations, as well as scholars of the subject, to review experience and evidence of the technology transfer system's effects and to recommend improvements. The present volume summarizes the committee's principal findings and recommendations. © 2011 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
This paper examines the dynamic interlinkages between the two pillars of ambidexterity in universities, research and knowledge transfer. We propose a theoretical model linking these two pillars at the organisational level. The model is tested using the longitudinal HE-BCI survey data juxtaposed against two consecutive rounds of research evaluation in the UK higher education sector. Results indicate that a university’s past performance along the research pillar strengthens the knowledge transfer pillar over time, through both commercialisation and academic engagement channels. This positive impact is negatively moderated by the university’s size and reputation, in the sense that in larger or more reputed universities, the marginal impact of research on knowledge transfer declines significantly. Additionally, we find that knowledge transfer reinforces the research pillar through positive mediation between past and future research, but only through academic engagement channels. The results also indicate that contract research routes provide the maximum benefit for most universities in enhancing their ambidexterity framework, both in the short and the long run. For the relatively more reputed universities, it is the collaboration route which provides the maximum benefit. Interestingly, no such reinforcement could be detected in the case of the research commercialisation channels.
Portuguese and Spanish universities have adopted well-defined royalty sharing arrangements over the last fifteen years. We investigate whether such royalty sharing arrangements have been effective in stimulating inventors' efforts and in ultimately improving university outcomes. We base our empirical analysis on university-level data and two new self-collected surveys for both inventors and Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). Evidence from the inventors' survey indicates that one third of respondents are incentivised by current royalty sharing arrangements, one third could be incentivised by higher royalty shares, and the remaining third is totally insensitive to royalty sharing. Plain regressions on university level datasets suggest that the incentive effects documented by the inventors' survey fail to translate into increased patenting or licensing income. It would seem that inventor royalty shares are not as influential as they could be, due to the poor commercial prospects of university inventions. Among other possible reasons, these poor prospects appear to reflect the fact that inventors are unable to produce potentially licensable inventions, or that eventually TTOs may not be focussing enough on commercialising their inventions.
The results of this research suggest a new mandate for discriminant validity testing in marketing. Specifically, the authors demonstrate that the AVE-SV comparison (Fornell and Larcker 1981) and HTMT ratio (Henseler et al. 2015) with 0.85 cutoff provide the best assessment of discriminant validity and should be the standard for publication in marketing. These conclusions are based on a thorough assessment of the literature and the results of a Monte Carlo simulation. First, based on a content analysis of articles published in seven leading marketing journals from 1996 to 2012, the authors demonstrate that three tests—the constrained phi (Jöreskog 1971), AVE-SV (Fornell and Larcker 1981), and overlapping confidence intervals (Anderson and Gerbing 1988)—are by far most common. Further review reveals that (1) more than 20% of survey-based and over 80% of non-survey-based marketing studies fail to document tests for discriminant validity, (2) there is wide variance across journals and research streams in terms of whether discriminant validity tests are performed, (3) conclusions have already been drawn about the relative stringency of the three most common methods, and (4) the method that is generally perceived to be most generous is being consistently misapplied in a way that erodes its stringency. Second, a Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to assess the relative rigor of the three most common tests, as well as an emerging technique (HTMT). Results reveal that (1) on average, the four discriminant validity testing methods detect violations approximately 50% of the time, (2) the constrained phi and overlapping confidence interval approaches perform very poorly in detecting violations whereas the AVE-SV test and HTMT (with a ratio cutoff of 0.85) methods perform well, and (3) the HTMT.85 method offers the best balance between high detection and low arbitrary violation (i.e., false positive) rates.
Academic entrepreneurship, which refers to efforts undertaken by universities to promote commercialization on campus and in surrounding regions of the university, has changed dramatically in recent years. Two key consequences of this change are that more stakeholders have become involved in academic entrepreneurship and that universities have become more ‘strategic’ in their approach to this activity. The authors assert that the time is ripe to rethink academic entrepreneurship. Specifically, theoretical and empirical research on academic entrepreneurship needs to take account of these changes, so as to improve the rigour and relevance of future studies on this topic. We outline such a framework and provide examples of key research questions that need to be addressed to broaden understanding of academic entrepreneurship.
The central premise of upper echelons theory is that executives' experiences, values, and personalities greatly influence their interpretations of the situations they face and, in turn, affect their choices. At the invitation of the editor, I recap the AMR article in which the theory was originally presented (Hambrick & Mason, 1984), discuss subsequent refinements of the theory, and lay out several promising avenues for future upper echelons research.
This review incorporates strategic planning research conducted over more than 30 years and ranges from the classical model of strategic planning to recent empirical work on intermediate outcomes, such as the reduction of managers’ position bias and the coordination of subunit activity. Prior reviews have not had the benefit of more socialized perspectives that developed in response to Mintzberg’s critique of planning, including research on planned emergence and strategy-as-practice approaches. To stimulate a resurgence of research interest on strategic planning, this review therefore draws on a diverse body of theory beyond the rational design and contingency approaches that characterized research in this domain until the mid-1990s. We develop a broad conceptualization of strategic planning and identify future research opportunities for improving our understanding of how strategic planning influences organizational outcomes. Our framework incorporates the role of strategic planning practitioners; the underlying routines, norms, and procedures of strategic planning (practices); and the concrete activities of planners (praxis).
Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) are the main institutions responsible for the establishment of university–industry partnerships. R&D contracts exemplify the indirect mechanisms through which enterprises and universities collaborate on a win–win basis. This study addresses organizational and institutional aspects that act as drivers for the establishment of successful university–industry partnerships. First, a series of regression models explain the determinants of R&D contracts. These models include two main dimensions: the university and the technology transfer office. Second, further analysis empirically explores whether universities in regions with a favorable environment enjoy greater active involvement in this particular knowledge transfer mechanism. The empirical study analyzes 2010 data for Spanish public universities. Results indicate that successful R&D contracts depend on university and TTO characteristics, and the university's location. The paper also presents a set of managerial implications for improving the establishment of university–industry partnerships.
In this paper we examine the institutionalization of a new organizational practice around third stream activities in UK higher education from 1994 to 2008. Employing a longitudinal research design, involving archival, survey and contemporary interview data, we show how a new organizational practice diffused through the use of discourse and metrics around commercialization but over time was threatened on pure economic criteria. In response to the threat we explore how actors worked to institutionalize the new practice, reshaping both discourse and metrics to ensure that they were robust so that they could align with the interests and values of major stakeholders. In addition, actors worked to align discourse and metrics, as any misalignment between the two would have undermined the institutionalization of the new organizational practice.
The purpose of our study is to review and synthesize the rapidly evolving literature on technology transfer effectiveness. Our paper provides a lens into relatively recent work, focusing particularly on empirical studies of US technology transfer conducted within the last 15 years. In doing so, we update and extend the Contingent Effectiveness Model of Technology Transfer developed by Bozeman (2000). Specifically, we include the growing interest in social and public value oriented technology transfer and, thus, the contingent effectiveness model is expanded to consider this literature. We categorize studies according their approaches to measuring effectiveness, draw conclusions regarding the current state of technology transfer evaluation, and offer recommendations for future studies.
The present paper elaborates a critical reflection on the ‘one-size-fits-all’ model which conceptualizes universities as centres of excellence in education, research and third mission. It is argued that the shortcomings of this perspective are twofold: first, HEIs are treated as homogeneous institutions with equal capacity to perform and contribute to social engagement; and second, missions are undistinguishable from each other. Both features lead to mischaracterizations concerning the role of universities and their contribution to society. In the view proposed here missions are university strategies linked by complex relationship of compatibility, and the paper puts in perspective the persisting gap concerning the nature of and the relations across them.
Organizational theory and research has increased attention to the determinants and consequences of attention in organizations. Attention is not, however, a unitary concept but is used differently in various metatheories: the behavioral theory of the firm, managerial cognition, issue selling, attention-based view, and ecology. At the level of the brain, neuroscientists have identified three varieties of attention: selective attention, executive attention, and vigilance. Attention is shaped by both top-down (i.e., schema-driven) and bottom-up (i.e., stimulus-driven) processes. Inspired by neuroscience research, I classify and compare three varieties of attention studied in organization science: attentional perspective (top-down), attentional engagement (combining top-down and bottom-up executive attention and vigilance), and attentional selection (the outcome of attentional processes). Based on research findings, I develop five propositions on how the varieties of attention in organization provide a theoretical alternative to theories of structural determinism or strategic choice, with a particular focus on the role of attention in explaining organizational adaptation and change.
This paper reviews the literature about the Aston Programme of organizational research, in particular, its studies of organizational structure. The intellectual commitments of the Aston Programme are explicated and contrasted with the then dominant traditions of organizational research. The methodology is explained, with its emphasis on quantitative variables, reliable scales and statistical methods. The way successive studies confirmed or challenged Weberian bureaucracy is discussed. The major structural scales and their short forms are described. The relationships among the structural variables and between them and the contextual variables of size, technology and public accountability are outlined. The generalizability of these relationships in organizational research across countries is considered. The paper offers a roughly chronological narrative in three phases: the original Aston study, the National study and then on to the many subsequent replication and extension studies and reviews of them. Some cognate organizational research studies are brought in that confirm the Aston Programme. The need to continue the Astonian Cartesian approach rather than the configurational approach is emphasized. In closing, the Aston legacy is briefly summated and a vision for a future Aston Programme is offered in an Epilogue.
As the innovation process has become more open and networked, Government policy in the UK has sought to promote both research excellence in the university sector and the translation of this into economic benefit through university-business engagement. However, this policy approach has tended to be applied uniformly with little account for organisational differences within the sector. In this paper we consider if differences between universities in their research performance is reflected in their knowledge transfer activity. Specifically, as universities develop a commercialization agenda are the strategic priorities for knowledge transfer, the organisational supports in place to facilitate knowledge transfer and the scale and scope of knowledge transfer activity different for high research intensive (HRI) and low research intensive (LRI) universities? The findings demonstrate that universities' approach to knowledge transfer is shaped by institutional and organisational resources, in particular their ethos and research quality, rather than the capability to undertake knowledge transfer through a Technology Transfer Office (TTO). Strategic priorities for knowledge transfer are reflected in activity, in terms of the dominance of specific knowledge transfer channels, the partners with which universities engage and the geography of business engagement.
The statistical tests used in the analysis of structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error are examined. A drawback of the commonly applied chi square test, in addition to the known problems related to sample size and power, is that it may indicate an increasing correspondence between the hypothesized model and the observed data as both the measurement properties and the relationship between constructs decline. Further, and contrary to common assertion, the risk of making a Type II error can be substantial even when the sample size is large. Moreover, the present testing methods are unable to assess a model's explanatory power. To overcome these problems, the authors develop and apply a testing system based on measures of shared variance within the structural model, measurement model, and overall model.
This paper examines the place of the strategic choice perspective in the study of organizations and considers its contemporary contribution. The main features of the original analysis are summarized, followed by a review of the key issues which arise from it. The paper discusses the integrative potential of strategic choice theory within organization studies and examines its contribution to an evolutionary perspective on the subject.
Four current controversies in structural equation modelling are reviewed; the “causal” nature of structural equation models, the assessment of global fit, the use of specification searches to enhance model fit, and the call for a return to “simpler” forms of analysis. Within each area the nature of the controversy is reviewed and suggestions made to improve future practice.
abstractWe examine the tensions that make it difficult for a research-oriented university to achieve commercial outcomes. Building on the organizational ambidexterity literature, we specify the nature of the tensions (between academic and commercially-oriented activities) at both organizational and individual levels of analysis, and how these can be resolved. We develop hypotheses linking specific aspects of the organization and the individual researcher to the likelihood of their research projects generating commercial outcomes, and we test them using a novel dataset of 207 Research Council-funded projects, combining objective data on project outcomes with the perceptions of principal investigators. We show that the tension between academic and commercial demands is more salient at the level of the individual researcher than at the level of the organization. Universities show evidence that they are able to manage the tensions between academic and commercial demands, through for example their creation of ‘dual structures’. At the individual level, on the other hand, the tensions are more acute, so that the people who deliver commercial outcomes tend to be rather different to those who are accustomed to producing academic outcomes.
The phenomenon of entrepreneurial universities has received considerable attention over the last decades. An entrepreneurial orientation by academia might put regions and nations in an advantageous position in emerging knowledge-intensive fields of economic activity. At the same time, such entrepreneurial orientation requires reconciliation with the scientific missions of academia. Large-scale empirical research on antecedents of the entrepreneurial effectiveness of universities is scarce. This contribution examines the extent to which scientific productivity affect entrepreneurial effectiveness, taking into account the size of universities and the presence of disciplines, as well as the R&D intensity of the regional business environment (BERD). In addition, we assess the occurrence of trade-offs between different transfer mechanisms (contract research, patenting and spin off activity). The data used pertain to 105 European universities. Our findings reveal that scientific productivity is positively associated with entrepreneurial effectiveness. Trade-offs between transfer mechanisms do not reveal themselves; on the contrary, contract research and spin off activities tend to facilitate each other. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
Those interested in the capacity of universities to change should be concerned with the quality of leadership, but in the
‘old’ universities leadership is regarded ‘either as a faintly subversive activity or as a low status occupation for academics’,
and so leadership is not rewarded or seen as a legitimate career aspiration (Middlehurst 1993, 177). In this situation, and
at a time when good leadership is most needed, academics are withdrawing from governance and this is leaving a gap, a gap
that is forcing administrators into more management because they are not in a position to lead faculty. Universities need
to recognize and develop academic and organizational leadership, with those leaders working in ways and through structures
that secure consent for change, so challenging those who argue that we face a stark choice between the democracy of collegiality
or the alleged efficiency of managerialism.
We provide a comprehensive and user-friendly compendium of standards for the use and interpretation of structural equation
models (SEMs). To both read about and do research that employs SEMs, it is necessary to master the art and science of the
statistical procedures underpinning SEMs in an integrative way with the substantive concepts, theories, and hypotheses that
researchers desire to examine. Our aim is to remove some of the mystery and uncertainty of the use of SEMs, while conveying
the spirit of their possibilities.
KeywordsStructural equation models–Confirmatory factor analysis–Construct validity–Reliability–Goodness-of-fit
Research shows that there are important institutional underpinnings for building university–industry linkages. This paper
aims to understand how China is developing the relevant organizational structures and incentives in its universities. What
academic institutions shape the scope and channels of university–industry linkages? What incentives do universities provide
to encourage and facilitate faculty engagement with industry? My analysis is accomplished through content analysis of university
documents and in-depth interviews with personnel in two top institutions—Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University,
supplemented by official statistics. It shows that the hybrid organizational structure to manage technology transfer is a
product of historical legacy and institutional learning—parts uniquely Chinese and parts adapted from the West. Faculty incentives
also have varied effects. In spite of being enticed to disclose inventions and pursue commercialization, faculty remains keener
on scholarly publications.
KeywordsUniversity–industry linkage-Organizational practice-Incentives-Higher education reform-China
JEL ClassificationO32-I23
Universities provide education as well as innovations resulting from their research. This paper focuses on the service of transferring research results into other sectors. Many stakeholders such as academic researchers, technology transfer offices (TTOs) and private industry are involved in technology transfer which calls for a comprehensive approach. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach is used as a productivity evaluation tool applied to university technology transfer. The methodology included weight restrictions providing a more comprehensive metric. The results include an examination of efficiency targets for specific universities as well as peer count of inefficient universities. Evidence of significant efficiency in university technology transfer is found in many leading universities. An examination of differences between public versus private universities and those with medical schools and those without indicated that universities with medical schools are less efficient than those without.
Different salient trends in university-based technology initiatives in the United States and Europe are discussed. The growth in private and public investment in university-based technology initiatives has raised important policy questions regarding the impact of such activities on researchers, universities, firms and local regions where such investments occur. The outcomes of research collaborations between industry scientists and university scientists are explored. It is concluded that the career paths of academic scientists and engineers affiliated with university research centers are quite difference than those characterized in the standard literature on career transitions of researchers.
We develop a theoretical model to explain the specific role of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) in licensing university inventions. Using a framework where firms have incomplete information on the quality of inventions, we develop a reputation argument for the TTO to reduce the asymmetric information problem. Our results indicate that a TTO is often able to benefit from its capacity to pool innovations across research units (and to build a reputation) within universities. We identify when the technology seller will have an incentive to “shelve” some of the projects, thus raising the buyer's beliefs on expected quality; this results in fewer but more valuable innovations being sold at higher prices. We explain the importance of a critical size for the TTO to be successful as well as the stylized fact that TTOs may lead to fewer licensing agreements but higher income from innovation transfers.
The transfer of scientific and technological know-how into valuable economic activity has become a high priority on many policy agendas. Industry Science Links (ISLs) are an important dimension of this policy orientation. Over the last decades, multiple insights have been gained (both theoretical and empirical) as to how “effective” ISLs can be fostered through the design and the development of university-based technology transfer organizations (TTOs). In this paper, we document and analyze the evolution of “effective” university-based technology transfer mechanisms. We describe how decentralized organizational approaches and incentives that stimulate the active involvement of the research groups in the exploitation of their research findings might be combined with specialized central services offering intellectual property management and spin-off support. More particularly, we analyze how the creation of:(1)an appropriate balance between centralization and decentralization within academia;(2)the design of appropriate incentive structures for academic research groups;(3)the implementation of appropriate decision and monitoring processes within the TTOhas brought about critical elements in fostering an “effective” commercialization of the academic science base.
We analyze how mid-range universities can contribute to industrial change through the transfer of tacit and codified knowledge in the areas of spin-offs; licensing and patents; contract research, consultancy and reach-out; and graduate and researcher mobility. We use archival, survey and interview data relating to mid-range universities in mid-range environments in the UK, Belgium, Germany and Sweden. Our findings suggest that mid-range universities primarily need to focus on generating world-class research and critical mass in areas of expertise, as well as developing different types of intermediaries. Mid-range universities may need to develop a portfolio of university–industry linkages in terms of the scope of activities and the types of firms with which they interact. We also show that different intermediaries have important roles to play in developing university–industry linkages for mid-range universities.