Barjak, Franz
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Influences of the regional and national economic environment on the technology transfer performance of academic institutions in Europe
The paper looks how the national and regional environment influence the knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) performance of universities and public research institutes. We regress a number of institutional control variables, country dummies and variables for region size and economic structure, per capita income, technology intensity, andR&Dintensity on four different tech transfer performance measures (R&D agreements with companies, patent applications, start-ups, licence agreements). Drawing on data from a survey of more than 200 European institutions we find: (1) Country differences are related to differences in the institutional set-up of technology transfer and to the (regional) economic environment which suggests multi-level analyses to properly take these interactions into account. (2) Institutions in a country usually excel for one performance measure which we take as a supporting argument for the development of transfer strategies. (3) Having manufacturing companies and a large share of governmental R&D expenditure in the region matter more than the technology intensity and R&D intensity of the regional economy. The latter result is counterintuitive and indicates that further research is needed in order to understand better where the clients of university technologies actually come from.
The effectiveness of policies for formal knowledge transfer from European universities and public research institutes to firms
We use survey data for 247 European universities and 40 public research organizations to investigate the effects of institutional policies on four outcomes of transfer performance (R&D agreements with companies, patent applications, licence agreements, and start-ups established). We find that the effects of policies to establish clear rules, improve transparency, and provide financial or non-finan- cial incentives vary by outcome. Improving transparency by publishing the policies for licencing or intellectual property are often negatively correlated with outcomes, particularly for licence agree- ments. Out of three non-financial incentives, only social rewards have a rather positive effect (on start-ups), but financial incentives are positively correlated with several outcomes. A higher salary is positively linked to the number of research agreements and patent applications, while giving in- ventors a share of revenue is positively correlated with licencing and start-ups. The results suggest that the type of incentive as well as the degree of transparency of transfer policies should be chosen to complement the main transfer channels and strategy of the institution.
Knowledge and technology transfer performance of European universities and research institutions: assessing the influence of institutional by-laws and practices
Several studies have shown that the knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) performance of universities and research institutions can be explained by institutional differences. Some of the factors that influence performance include providing staff incentives and the establishment of a knowledge transfer office (KTO). However, only a few empirical studies have looked at the influence of institutional by-laws and practices on KTT performance, even though they might have strong impacts. We use 2010 and 2011 data for 224 European universities and 48 public research organisations to investigate the effects of KTO characteristics, staff incentives, and policies on three measures of KTT: the number of invention disclosures, patent applications and licenses. Using a negative binomial count model, we find that a written IP policy is correlated with an increase in all three outcomes, although open publication of policies has no effect. Rules on managing conflict are positively correlated with the number of invention disclosures and patent applications. The only incentive for researchers that has a consistent positive effect on all outcome measures is to give inventors a share of the revenues. Non-monetary rewards such as career enhancement or social rewards have no effect.