Within the broad field of university entrepreneurship, the analysis of the commercialization processes by Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), often the formal gateway between university and industry, focuses on the different forms and mechanisms through which academic knowledge and intellectual property (IP) is capitalized and commercially exploited.
Compared to other research streams, the topic of TTOs productivity has been quite largely studied; literature, consistently with the resource based view of the organization, implies that possessing valuable rare inimitable non-substitutable (VRIN) technology assets largely explains superior performance by TTOs. Few studies however show that the value of technologies is a not sufficient driver of licensing success, as many worthy IP remain unlicensed, and suggest the management and organization of TT activities represents a promising area for further inquiry, potentially able to explain TTOs performance.
By tackling the following research question, “how do different managerial and organizational approaches to technology transfer relate to different levels of performance?”, the paper aims at providing evidence on how TTOs design and implement their technology commercialization strategies. Adopting the Dynamic Capabilities perspective as a theoretical lens for examining TT management at the organization level, the paper develops an interpretative framework which aims to identify the organizational and managerial antecedents underlying the development of superior capabilities in commercializing academic research.
Former CIS universities start to make attempts to generate synergy among science, education and innovation. In particular, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Moldova implemented reforms with the goal to move from natural resource economy towards innovation based economy. However, there are significant barriers in this development, and those countries don’t show history of innovation and entrepreneurship as well as matured supportive ecosystem. In this circumstance the comparison with Western universities is promising for the initial establishment of innovation clusters and institution in the countries.
The empirical research adopts a multiple case study analysis carried out during the last two years. In particular, the paper reports and discusses a rich empirical basis drawn from a sample of Italian universities technology transfer offices engaged in commercializing academic research with very different degree of success. They are compared with a sample of TTO from Kazakhstan, Russian, and Moldova, with the aim to understand the level of capabilities and the managerial dimensions that nurture such capabilities in the two different contexts.
The paper is believed to be useful, since it provides technology managers from emerging country universities with a number of suggestions for organizing and managing TT that are likely to improve TTO’s performance.
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Datum:
15.06.2011.
Br. otvaranja:
725
