The growth of China’s technology transfer industry over the next decade: implications for global markets

China has moved mightily over the last 30 years to increase its capacity to develop indigenous technology to invigorate its industrial base and shift it from the world’s factory to the world’s developer and manufacturer of products. To achieve this requires buttressing an emerging intellectual property system, increasing university research while encouraging scientists to patent and commercialize their discoveries. Additionally, the development of a functioning and agile venture capital system to invest in these new technologies, coupled with liquid equity markets for consummating IPO’s have been developed in record time. Will these remarkable efforts be sufficient to allow China to dominate the technology transfer market domestically or internationally over the next 10 years? The conclusions are twofold: on one hand, China undoubtedly will become the world’s largest customer for technology transfers both domestically and internationally, but global leadership in new technology development and licensing from research institutions is unlikely to be achieved over the next 10 years. Foreign firms, especially those within the US or with strong ties to the US are most likely to dominate this sector due to the US’s comprehensive university network coupled with its well established IP technology transfer industry.     

The brokering role of technology transfer offices within entrepreneurial ecosystems: an investigation of macro–meso–micro factors

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Previous studies have identified the importance of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems, however, few have considered in an integrated multi-level way, the...     

The making of an expert detective: the role of experience in English and Norwegian police officers’ investigative decision-making

Biased decision-making in criminal investigations can impede or arrest the progress of justice. Previous research has not systematically addressed the effects of professional experience on the quality of detectives’ decision-making. Using a quasi-experimental design, this study compared the quality of investigative decisions made by experienced detectives and novice police officers in two countries with markedly different models for the development of investigative expertise (England and Norway). Participants (N?=?124) were presented with two semi-fictitious cases and were asked to report all relevant investigative hypotheses and necessary investigative actions in each case. The quality of participants’ responses was gauged against a gold standard established by a panel of senior homicide experts. In the English sample, experienced detectives vastly outperformed novice police officers in the number of reported gold-standard investigative hypotheses and actions. In the Norwegian sample, however, experienced detectives did not perform any better than novices. We argue that English (vs. Norwegian) detectives may benefit more from professional experience due to their Professionalising Investigation Programme and a nationwide accreditation program, requiring them to engage in extensive standardized training, systematic evaluation and synchronized development. In contrast, Norway lacks such requirements. Methodological limitations and implications for police training and accreditation policies are discussed.     

The impact of technology transfer contract on a firm’s market value in Korea

Technology transfer has been evaluated as a driving force of economic growth as well as one way to create new innovation. In order to make a successful technology transfer, both additional emission efforts by the supplier and absorption efforts by the recipient are required, because it is not as simple as the acquisition of a capital good. This study seeks to better understand the nature of successful technology transfer in Korea. We empirically analyzed the impact of the supplier’s characteristics (cultural distance, relationship type, form of technology transfer, and licensing type) and the recipient’s characteristics (absorptive capacity) on the market value of firms in Korea using the event study methodology. We found that technology transfer announcements significantly increase the market value of firms in Korea, and market responses to the recipient firms are significantly greater than those to the supplier firms. Our results showed that the effect of alliances with complementors (e.g., university, government laboratory) is greater than that of alliances with industry players, and the effect of an exclusive license as a method of technology transfer is greater than that of a non-exclusive license. However, we were not able to determine whether the impact of high levels of absorptive capacity is significantly different from that of low levels of absorptive capacity. Our study will not only complement and extend research on technology transfer, but also provide firms with various methods to decrease the risks related to technology transfer.     

University–Industry collaboration in the biopharmaceuticals: the Italian case

We investigate the determinants of University–Industry (U–I) interactions in the biopharmaceuticals in Italy over the period 2004–2010, choosing co-publishing as a proxy of U–I partnerships. We construct a novel dataset of co-published articles, that contains measures of proximities, agglomeration, firms’ and universities’ characteristics. Following a consolidated methodology, we integrate our dataset of effective interactions with the set of all potential interactions, to estimate probabilistic models for the occurrence and the intensity of U–I interactions. Our main findings confirm and extend the predictions of the previous literature: (1) geographical proximity and prior partnership increase the probability and the intensity of co-publication; (2) the proximity of a firm to other biopharmaceutical firms and universities attenuates the relevance of geographical proximity; (3) there exists complementarity between prior partnerships and geographical proximity. A novel result is that firms’ and Universities’ size, firms’ R&D and patents expenditure and the composition of the academic staff as well as quality of academic research exert a significant impact on the intensity of co-publishing.     

The university’s unknown knowledge: tacit knowledge, technology transfer and university spin-offs findings from an empirical study based on the theory of knowledge

The assumption that research findings provide the basis for spin-off projects at universities has been found up to now in literature and the practice. Supported by the theory of knowledge, the empirical study presented here shows that this idea is too limited. Only 45 % of spin-offs use codified research findings from the university, while 55 % use tacit knowledge that was acquired at the university. These spin-offs use knowledge beyond research findings, starting companies in the shadow of publications by academic institutions and drawing from the realm of tacit knowledge at universities. Tacit start-up knowledge is present in all scientific disciplines of universities; even the exploitation- and patent-oriented engineering sciences account for almost half of the start-ups. Start-ups based on tacit knowledge lead to both technology-oriented and service companies. They also do not differ from codified knowledge-based start-ups in the number of jobs that they create. The discovery of the tacit knowledge spin-offs as a phenomenon has an entire series of implications for the practice and research. The tacit start-up potential was not considered previously in the university promotion instruments and start-up consultancies. Furthermore, we can assume that tacit knowledge-based start-ups are only an initial indication of the innovation potential within the tacit realm of knowledge for universities and research institutes.     

What affects technology transfer in emerging knowledge areas? A multi-stakeholder concept mapping study in the bioeconomy

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Technology transfer in emerging knowledge areas such as the bioeconomy is strongly challenged. The related challenges are attained to the differences in...     

Informing public policy on science and innovation: the Advanced Technology Program’s experience

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) collected a unique source of data from highly innovative firms beginning in 1993. These data follow the OECD’s guidelines for collecting innovation data and provide important insights for understanding the innovation process within firms. Although the data are not representative of the population of firms, there is sufficient number of firms in the dataset to test hypotheses and to provide a starting point for calls for innovation metrics. Because of the confidential nature of the data, ATP worked with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) to create a Data Enclave so that researchers could remotely access the ATP data in a secure environment. To initiate the use of ATP data in the Data Enclave, the ATP program funded researchers to undertake research projects that use ATP data. Other organizations have joined the Data Enclave, including the Department of Agriculture and the Kauffman Foundation.

Comparative study of sustainable and non-sustainable interventions in technology development and transfer to the women’s vegetable gardens in the Gambia

In the Gambia numerous projects have been implemented to boost vegetable production. A survey was conducted in Kanifing Municipality and Western Division of the Gambia to determine the level of technology development and transfer. The result shows that the total membership of the intervention sites is 726 and 1,115 growers in the non-intervention sites respectively. From the survey 92% of farmers considered variety improvement as a priority area for technology development. The result indicated that 45% of the respondents regard that 80% of technologies comes research and farmers and 90% of technology dissemination to farmers is through the public extension system, and 20% of respondents mentioned farmer groups. The aim of this study was therefore to examine acquisition, technology development, and transfer to farmers and to come with appropriate strategies of technology transfer in The Gambia in the areas of production and marketing of vegetables.      

“Even though we're married,I'm single”: The meaning of jail incarceration in romantic relationships

Jail incarceration substantially transforms romantic relationships, and incarceration may alter the commitment between partners, thereby undermining or strengthening relationships. In this article, we use in-depth interviews with 85 women connected to incarcerated men (as current or former romantic partners) to explore how women articulate relationship changes that stem from their partner's jail incarceration, a common but understudied form of contact with the criminal legal system. We identify three interrelated and mutually reinforcing processes, which are shaped by and shape a partner's commitment to the relationship. First, incarceration produces liminality in the status of the relationship. Second, incarceration fosters women's sense of independence from their incarcerated partners. Third, incarceration creates space for partners to reevaluate how they prioritize the relationship in their lives. Jail incarceration intervenes in romantic relationships at different points during each relationship, and accordingly, women experience heterogeneity in processes of liminality, independence, and reprioritization. These processes contribute to differential relationship experiences, with some relationships deteriorating during incarceration, others strengthening, and others neither deteriorating nor strengthening. By systematically uncovering these processes linking jail incarceration to romantic relationships, we advance an understanding of how the criminal legal system can shape relationship commitment processes and inequalities among families.     

Is the risk of North–South technology transfer failure an obstacle to a cooperative climate change agreement?

We setup a stylized model with endogenous North–South technology transfer for climate change mitigation. We theoretically identify the driving factors that enhance or hinder cooperation with socially optimal binding targets on emissions and on investment in technology transfer. We find that the risk of technology transfer failure creates an obstacle to the achievement of the cooperative agreement: under cooperation, the South will have to fulfill the emissions target at high costs if technology transfer fails. Under non-cooperation without any binding targets, the North still has an intrinsic motivation to reduce emissions in the South at low costs via technology transfer; and the South does not have the pressure to fulfill an emissions target. As a result, non-cooperation shifts part of the costs of a technology transfer failure from the poor South to the rich North and can thus be preferable for the South. Two policy implications for achieving the cooperative solution are derived: first, the South should be insured against or compensated for a technology transfer failure. Second, an agreement on technology transfer should be formulated in terms of emissions reductions or low-carbon technology capacities that are to be achieved rather than in terms of monetary payments with uncertain effects on emissions. We discuss the model results in the context of empirical facts and current developments.     

“Another roof,another proof”: the impact of mobility on individual productivity in science

The Journal of Technology Transfer - The mobility of highly skilled employees is seen as a critical way for organizations to transfer knowledge and to improve organizational performance. Yet, the...     

“Who made the code in the first place?”: Delinquency and justice in an American Indian community

This paper examines the emergence of official categories of delinquency and a formal system for the legal processing of youth on one American Indian reservation. The creation of the legal code, Children's Court and Juvenile Detention Center, and the ongoing activities of these agencies are placed in the context of the larger social system of the reservation and the history of federal policies toward Indian peoples. Through in-depth interviews, participant observation, case file review, and the analysis of existing statistics, perceptions of delinquency and justice and trends in the legal processing of adolescents in this community are explored. The implications of this imposed system of law and justice for this community are discussed.