Introduction

Research and technology commercialization at research-intensive universities has helped
to develop provincial economies. This has resulted in university startups, the growth of other new companies and associated employment. Interestingly, university technology transfer offices (TTOs) oversee the process of technology transfer into the commercial marketplace. Further, these organizational units can be considered in the context of enabling effective knowledge management. This article is about technology transfer knowledge based view.

Method

However, what enables productive TTO performance has not been comprehensively researched. Therefore, we adopted the knowledge-based view as the theoretical construct to support a comprehensive investigation into this area. We employed a systematic literature review (SLR) combined with a robust meta-analysis. The SLR identified an initial total of 10,126 articles in the first step of the review process, with 44 studies included in the quantitative synthesis, and 29 quantitative empirical studies selected for the meta-analysis. The research study identified that the relationship between TTO knowledge management and knowledge deployment as well as startup business performance is where TTOs secure the strongest returns.

university technology transfer from the knowledge based view

With the technology transfer knowledge based view, knowledge management was operationalized by features of TTO research administration and related legal staffing. Knowledge deployment was operationalized as the deployment of resources, including faculty invention disclosures, patent applications and patents owned by universities. Knowledge infrastructure was operationalized as the presence of incubators and medical schools. It was discovered that knowledge deployment is significant relative to startup business formations. The Knowledge Based View (KBV) indicates that knowledge becomes internalized, shared, accumulated, and used in the process of knowledge integration.

Why care?

Once these processes are established, an organization can achieve competitive advantages. Consequently, we can consider that where universities are able to bolster the TTO capability (e.g., in terms of tech transfer and legal staffing levels) and when combined with a dynamic academic environment with inventions and science and technology breakthroughs by teams of researchers, this has the potential to lead to a higher level of tech transfer performance (i.e., in terms of patent licensing and generating startups).

Also, it is important to note instances where small effects are observed (i.e., when the correlation r is significantly less than 0.5). There was practically no relationship between knowledge infrastructure (i.e., the presence of medical schools and incubators) and licensing performance; nor with overall TTO performance; or startup formations.

Implications for TTO managers

This research helps TTO managers and leaders focus their limited financial resources on knowledge deployment rather than physical infrastructure like incubators or medical schools. By doing so, they can improve performance outcomes and reconcile conflicting findings in existing studies. University leaders can also use these insights to allocate scarce resources more effectively. Scientists, engineers, and industry managers aiming to commercialize university research will benefit as well. A deeper understanding of the tech transfer process increases their chances of achieving successful commercialization.

Read more here: Knowledge based view of university technology transfer

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See also university technology transfer from the attention based view