Title: Determinants of technology transfer success: evidence from New Zealand public research organisations

Authors: Jamie Attenborough; Pierluigi Martino; Cristiano Bellavitis

Addresses: School of Biological Sciences, Bioscience Enterprise, University of Auckland, Auckland CBD, 1010, New Zealand ' Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Via Cosimo Ridolfi 10, Pisa 56124, Italy ' Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, Suite #503, 721 University Ave., Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

Abstract: Technology transfer (TT) from public research organisations (PROs) is increasingly recognised as a key mechanism to facilitate economic impacts. Given its economic relevance, scholars are increasingly trying to understand TT success and its determinants. However, TT success is not well defined, and the literature on determinants remains fragmented. We investigate the goals and determinants of TT across research institutes (RIs) and universities within the New Zealand (NZ) ecosystem from the perspective of senior TT professionals who facilitate processes at the intersection between government, university, and industry sectors. We adopt a qualitative, inductive case approach, using semi-structured interviews to collect data from 11 senior TT professionals across five RIs and six universities. Our findings indicate that TT success goals and determinants are largely shared across the two types of PROs, with some contextual differences emergent. TT success is defined temporally by short-and long-term goals, with PROs emphasising longer-term outcomes over short-term outputs and returns. Determinants for TT success fall under two dimensions: managing internal resources and acquiring external resources, with determinants spanning individual, organisational, and system levels. Finally, we combine the findings to form a model which provides an empirical framework for future studies.

Keywords: technology transfer; success goals; success determinants; resource-based theory; public research organisations; PROs; research institutes; universities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2022.124341

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2022 Vol.19 No.2, pp.212 - 248

Received: 13 Jul 2020
Accepted: 18 Jan 2021
Published online: 25 Jul 2022 *

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