University Third mission in Italy: organization,faculty attitude and academic specialization

In the last decades Third mission of Universities (encompassing Technology and Knowledge Transfer) has come abreast of the two traditional tasks of Universities. Organization of Universities and attitude of researchers in this field still needs to undergo research. The present work provides experimental evidence of the differences existing in such terms between a specialized technological University and a generalist “Humboldtian” one (with particular regards to its scientific departments). The experimental study is performed on two Italian Universities with similar formal structure and external environment, but with different specialization and research/teaching subjects. Two databases—one agent-based, the second institutional-based—are exploited in order to highlight characters. Results show different organization and attitudes. This may be due either to different organization of internal competencies and responsibilities, or to a different historical path of external relations. Results might prove relevant for the organization of Third mission activities with particular regard to Technology Transfer.