TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing the impact of organizational practices on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices
T2 - An exploratory study
AU - Siegel, Donald
AU - Waldman, David
AU - Link, Albert
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Philippe Aghion, Leanne Atwater, Richard Disney, Jonathan Haskel, Susan Helper, Adam Jaffe, Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Kjell Salvanes, Robert Sauer, Jonathan Silberman, Jerry Thursby, Marie Thursby, Steve Zylstra, three anonymous reviewers, and seminar participants at the NBER, CEPR, Purdue, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, CERGI-EI, University of Nottingham, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, the 1999 Conference on Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Data (CAED) in The Netherlands, EARIE 2000, the 2000 Strategic Management Society Meetings, and the 2000 International Schumpeter Society Conference for their insightful comments and suggestions. We are also deeply indebted to the many administrators, scientists, managers, and entrepreneurs who agreed to be interviewed. Martha Cobb and Melissa Zidle provided capable research assistance. Financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation through the NBER Project on Industrial Technology and Productivity is gratefully acknowledged.
Funding Information:
National Science Foundation (NSF) Research and Development in Industry, 1991–1994. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.
PY - 2003/1
Y1 - 2003/1
N2 - We present quantitative and qualitative evidence on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices (TTOs). Our empirical results suggest that TTO activity is characterized by constant returns to scale and that environmental and institutional factors explain some of the variation in performance. Productivity may also depend on organizational practices. Unfortunately, there are no quantitative measures available on such practices, so we rely on inductive, qualitative methods to identify them. Based on 55 interviews of 98 entrepreneurs, scientists, and administrators at five research universities, we conclude that the most critical organizational factors are faculty reward systems, TTO staffing/compensation practices, and cultural barriers between universities and firms.
AB - We present quantitative and qualitative evidence on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices (TTOs). Our empirical results suggest that TTO activity is characterized by constant returns to scale and that environmental and institutional factors explain some of the variation in performance. Productivity may also depend on organizational practices. Unfortunately, there are no quantitative measures available on such practices, so we rely on inductive, qualitative methods to identify them. Based on 55 interviews of 98 entrepreneurs, scientists, and administrators at five research universities, we conclude that the most critical organizational factors are faculty reward systems, TTO staffing/compensation practices, and cultural barriers between universities and firms.
KW - Stochastic frontier estimation (SFE)
KW - Technology transfer offices (TTOs)
KW - University/industry technology transfer (UITT)
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U2 - 10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00196-2
DO - 10.1016/S0048-7333(01)00196-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84867972841
SN - 0048-7333
VL - 32
SP - 27
EP - 48
JO - Research Policy
JF - Research Policy
IS - 1
ER -