Addressing academic researcher priorities through science and technology entrepreneurship education

The Journal of Technology Transfer - A key feature of the movement to create more entrepreneurial universities is incentivizing researchers to move discoveries beyond the laboratory and into...     

Effective models of science,technology and engineering entrepreneurship education: current and future research

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Science, Technology and Engineering Entrepreneurship Education (STEE) might raise student awareness towards the opportunities seeking challenges of...     

Performance of technology transfer offices in Germany

The aim of this study is to empirically analyze the performance of technology transfer offices (TTO) in Germany. Although being one of the largest and innovative economies in the world, there is only scarce evidence about the role and performance of TTO in university–industry technology transfer. While policy makers and university managers are often quite optimistic about the impact of TTO in fostering technology transfer into the region, consulting firms and research institutes report such institutions in Germany as superfluous and counterproductive. Using the number of invention disclosures as a performance measure, we analyze how variance in performance can be explained by different organizational structures and variables of TTO. Controlling for regional endowment and university specific effects, our results reveal that TTO performance is mainly a function of the kind of labor division within the TTO and the research intensity of the university. Knowing the drivers of TTO performance may help policy makers and university managers to reflect their strategies, mitigate weak points and thus foster performance.     

Technology transfer and entrepreneurship: cross-national analysis

The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of the links between technology transfer, entrepreneurship and the institutional setting in explaining both the competitiveness of firms and the economic performance of places, albeit a city, region, state or country. We accomplish this objective by presenting a framework for the cross-national analysis of different regional contexts. Finally, we introduce the papers included in this special issue in the International journal of Technology Transfer on ‘Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship: Cross-National Analysis’.     

Technology transfer offices and university patenting in Sweden and Germany

This paper analyses the factors that impact on the decision of researchers to patent their research results. Particular emphasis is put on the role of technology transfer offices. It builds on a survey of university professors in Sweden and Germany. The regression results show that researchers that received support from the public infrastructure and researchers that have experience with the patenting system—through own previous patents or joint patent applications with firms—are much more likely to apply for patents.     

University technology transfer through entrepreneurship: faculty and students in spinoffs

This research informs our understanding of the technology commercialization process in university spinoffs, focusing in particular on student involvement in the early phases of the spinoff development process and on the impact of the larger university ecosystem. Detailed case studies indicate that graduate and post-doctoral students are important participants in university spinoffs. We offer a typology of spinoff development with four pathways, based on the varying roles of faculty, experienced entrepreneurs, PhD/post-doctoral students, and business students. The effects of the larger university ecosystem, beyond the university technology transfer office and the university’s commercialization policies, are also considered, including an examination of programs and practices that may influence this process. We close with a discussion of guidelines for technology transfer and spinoff development at universities, based on the findings of this research.     

Technology transfer offices and academic spin-off creation: the case of Italy

Over the past decades, university-industry relationships have become an important subject due to the essential role played by technological progress in the economic development of countries. From a theoretical point of view, several studies have shown the close relationship between investments in research and innovative activities of universities and the economic growth of specific territories. Indeed, the strong linkages between universities and a country’s production system encourage the process of technology transfer and the commercial use of the research results. For this reason, the European Union has implemented a series of measures to promote the adoption of research findings in the real economic and social context, strengthening the linkages between universities, industries and government. As a starting point for enhancing this link, specific mechanisms have been devised by universities. In particular, technology transfer offices (TTOs) have been created to stimulate and encourage the dissemination of the research outcomes, translate them into practise, and facilitate their interrelations with the other two agents of the innovation systems: industries and government. Within this context, the present paper aims to gain knowledge on the determinants of spin-off creation in Italy with special attention to the role played by university TTOs. Specifically, an econometric probability model has been built merging the extant literature into four distinct strands. The analysis, based on the NetVal indicators and primary data survey, has allowed us to assess the Italian experience at an aggregate and disaggregate level.     

Signaling in academic ventures: the role of technology transfer offices and university funds

University spinoffs, an important subset of high-tech start-up companies, operate in a context characterized by marked information asymmetries that limit their chances of obtaining financing. Given the uncertainty and imperfect information that characterize these investment opportunities, signals about their potential value deserve further attention. We investigate the relationship between the main stakeholders involved in the process of creating a university spinoff—that is, the academic founders, the university technology-transfer office, and private investors—focusing on the role of public grants as effective signals that attract private venture capital (VC) funding. Using the database of all spinoff companies established to exploit inventions assigned to the University of Michigan from 1999 to 2010, we determine how the funds provided through the university technology-transfer office influence VC follow-on funding and consequent spinoff growth, controlling for the spinoff’s technology, the founders’ human capital, and the network’s resources. The empirical results support a signaling effect of the commercialization funds provided by the university and suggest an indirect impact on the growth of the spinoff’s sales through the mediating effect of VC financing.     

Engines need transmission belts: the importance of people in technology transfer offices

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Over the last 20 years, universities and Public Research Organizations have increased their efforts to transfer their research results towards...     

The transfer of public science to patented technology: A case study in agricultural science

One of the most difficult challenges in technology transfer is to measure the movement of knowledge from basic scientific research to industrial technology. This paper will report on a study of the linkage between science supported by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and patented technology. This study traced the citations from U.S. patents issued in 1987–88 and 1993–94 to scientific research papers linked to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The number of patent citations to ARS papers, and to other USDA-supported papers has increased fourfold over the six-year period. A distinct difference also exists between the patent-cited ARS papers and patent-cited extramural USDA-supported papers: ARS papers are in more agriculturally related journals, while the extramural papers were in more basic and biomedical journals. USDA-supported papers were overwhelmingly cited by U.S.-invented patents (in a patent system in which half the patents are foreign-invented). In the primary field of ARS papers (Biology), they are cited much more often by patents than Biology papers from any other publishing organization. Since the publishing organizations and support sources of all the papers cited in these patents have now been identified, we can study the transfer of scientific results to patented technology by institution, by agency, or by any other category of patent or paper holder. The authors thank the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agricultural, especially Dr. Richard Parry, for this paper' use of the study performed for them by CHI Research, Inc. (Grant number 59-0790-6-054)     

Making drugs available at affordable prices: how universities' technology transfer offices can help developing countries

Legal context: In recent years, the prices at which medicines are soldin, and to, developing countries has become a hot politicalsubject affecting the international pharmaceutical industry.Specific legislative measures have followed the political debate,including (1) the EU Regulation 816/2006 on ‘compulsorylicensing of patents relating to the manufacture of pharmaceuticalproducts for export to countries with public health problems’and (2) the The Doha Declaration adopted by the Fourth MinisterialConference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, andthe subsequent Decisions by the WTO General Council to implementthe Declaration in August 2003 and to amend the TRIPs (Trade-RelatedAspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement in December2005. Universities are increasingly considering whether to includeterms in their licence agreements with pharmaceutical companiesthat address this issue. Key points and practical significance: Universities may wish to consider whether it is part of theirmission to negotiate special terms in licence agreements tobenefit the developing world. Where universities decide that,in principle, they wish to include ‘humanitarian-licensing’clauses in their licence agreements, they need to find a formof words that is likely to achieve their objectives and be acceptableto pharmaceutical industry licensees. This article considerssome of the options and suggests some specimen wording.     

The internationalization of science and its influence on academic entrepreneurship

We examine whether scientists employed in foreign countries and foreign-educated native researchers are more “entrepreneurial” than their “domestic” counterparts. We conjecture that foreign-born and foreign-educated scientists possess broader scientific skills and social capital, which increases their likelihood that they will start their own companies. To test this hypothesis we analyze comprehensive data from researchers at the Max Planck Society in Germany. Our findings provide strong support for the conjecture that academic entrepreneurship can be stimulated by facilitating the mobility of scientists across countries.     

Technology proximity between firms and universities and technology transfer

This paper investigates the technological orientation of firms and universities and their propensity to have knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities. This study looks at the technological potential for KTT and how it is used, emphasizing differences between smaller and larger firms. To this end we collected information about the technology activities of firms (patent statistics) and the technology activities of universities. Furthermore, we used survey data on technology transfer activities. We combined the three datasets and found??especially for smaller firms??that great technology proximity fosters transfer activities with different universities (case 1). The same is true if proximity is low and expertise is considerable at universities in the respective technology field (case 2). In both cases additional transfer potential exists. In the second case firms engage in transfer activities in order to update and modify their knowledge base and as a consequence improve ??competitiveness?? in certain technology fields. Furthermore, firms show a tendency to diversify their contacts with universities in order to avoid knowledge lock-in.     

Technology transfer model for Austrian higher education institutions

The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a PhD research (Heinzl 2007, Unpublished PhD Thesis) conducted on the Universities of Applied Sciences in Austria. Four of the models that emerge from this research are: Generic Technology Transfer Model (Sect. 5.1); Idiosyncrasies Model for the Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences (Sect. 5.2); Idiosyncrasies-Technology Transfer Effects Model (Sect. 5.3); Idiosyncrasies-Technology Transfer Cumulated Effects Model (Sect. 5.3). The primary and secondary research methods employed for this study are: literature survey, focus groups, participant observation, and interviews. The findings of the research contribute to a conceptual design of a technology transfer system which aims to enhance the higher education institutions’ technology transfer performance.     

Transfer of entrepreneurship education best practices from business schools to engineering and technology institutions: evidence from Pakistan

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This paper examines the transfer of entrepreneurship education best practices from business schools to engineering and technology institutions. Nations like...     

Technology transfer and academic education with a focus on diversity

This paper describes the “Presence on Campus” technology transfer experiment that Hughes Electronics Corporation is conducting with a large minority institution, California State University, Los Angeles (CSLA). It presents the experiment in the context of the company's workforce diversity objectives and its internal and other external education diversity efforts, as well as CSLA's minority education and research and development programs. The article summarizes progress toward the promotion of resource-leveraging joint R&D projects and student intern involvement, as well as the definition of industry-relevant thesis topics. Some lessons learned are reported.     

Facilitating technology transfer in education via paradigms for planned change

The technology (product) in education is knowledge. Therefore, one would expect that disseminators of knowledge (educators) would be on the forefront of change (creators and distributors of new knowledge). There is little evidence to show that the education system in the United States is receptive to future-oriented knowledge and methods. Therefore, this paper presents models to facilitate a receptive mind-set to the creation and transfer of technology in education.     

Conflict between entrepreneurship and open science, and the transition of scientific norms

In the trend of academic entrepreneurship, practical and direct contribution of university research to the society has been emphasized, in which university scientists have increasingly engaged in commercial activities, university-industry relationships, and technology transfers. However, this trend has aroused concern about a potentially negative impact on the tradition of open science. Drawing on a survey data of 698 Japanese natural scientists, this study analyzes the behaviors and norms of university scientists under the influence of university interventions for entrepreneurship, whereby examining the compatibility between entrepreneurship and open science. The results indicate that entrepreneurial interventions have facilitated scientists?? norm for practical contribution, and consequently, their involvement in commercial activities and ties with industry. Then, some, but not all, of these entrepreneurial activities have deterred cooperative or open relationships between scientists. However, the results suggest that the entrepreneurial interventions have not deteriorated the traditional norm for open science. Further analyses indicate that the two norms for practical contribution and for open science are determined independently, implying that academic entrepreneurship can be promoted without deteriorating open science.     

Performance measures as forms of evidence for science and technology policy decisions

Amidst current widespread calls for evidence based decision making on public investments in science and technological innovation, frequently interpreted to imply the employment of some bundle of output, outcome, productivity, or rate-of-return measures, the promises and limitations of performance measures, singly or collectively, varies greatly across contexts. The promises reflect belief in, scholarly research supportive of, and opportunistic provision of performance measures that respond or cater to executive and legislative branch expectations or hopes that such measures will facilitate evidence-based decision-making. The limitations reflect research on the dynamics of scientific discovery, technological innovation and the links between the two that even when well done and used by adepts, performance measures at best provide limited guidance for future expenditure decisions and at worst are rife with potential for incorrect, faddish, chimerical, and counterproductive decisions. As a decision-making enhancement, performance measurement techniques have problematic value when applied to the Big 3 questions of U.S. science policy: (1) what is the optimal size of the Federal government’s investments in science and technology programs; (2) the allocation of these investments among missions/agencies/and programs (and thus fields of science); and (3) the selection of performers, funding mechanisms, and the criteria used to select projects and performers.