Local Practice,barriers And Effectiveness Of University Technology Transfer

Since the revision of the Law on the Promotion of the Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements,the central and local governments have issued a large number of laws,regulations and policies aiming to stimulate inventors' efforts and facilitate university technology transfer.However,policy effects are disappointing,the income from technology transfer has not changed significantly.Management complexity and frequent policy changes,insufficient resource supply and allocation,cognitive conflicts between business and academic logics are still barriers to effective technology transfer.How to diminish the barriers of technology transfer and increasing income has become a realistic problem to be solved urgently.Some universities have set new regulations,formed new professional organizations and carried out diverse local practices,trying to remove barriers and achieve high performance in licensing.However,these attempts are relatively scattered.This study explores the concept,forms,mechanism and effect of technology transfer local practice.This study focuses on the question "how to diminish the university technology transfer barriers and improve effectiveness?" First,this study reviewes the literature of university technology transfer.Second,based on four university cases,this study reveals how does the university respond to national polices and mission conflicts.Third,based on five universities that represent the best performance of technology transfer in China,this study explores the concept,forms and mechanism of technology transfer local practice.Finally,based on information gathered from 310 Chinese universities,the study tests the model of “local practice – barrier avoidance – technology transfer effectiveness”,revealing the relationship between different local practices and explaning why diverse local practices have different impact on technology transfer effectiveness.This study draws five main conclusions.First,universities adopt isomorphic strategies in institutional arrangements aiming to gain and maintain legitimacy.Heterogeneous strategies are adopted in technology transfer ecosystem design to coordinate multiple missions.Second,bureaucracy simplification is an important local practice to improve technology transfer effectiveness.Third,network building has limited effect on improving technology transfer effectiveness.Forth,boundary spanning is an important local practice to improve technology transfer effectiveness.Finally,barrier avoidance plays a mediating role between local practice and technology transfer effectiveness.This study has three contributions.First,based on policy response perspective,the study explores how universities respond to policy changes and expands the research on how universities respond to environmental pressure.Second,based on a holistic perspective,the study analyzes main actors and structure characteristics of technology transfer ecosystem,which can enrich technology transfer ecosystem literature.Third,the study builds a theoretical model of "local practice-barrier avoidance-technology transfer effectiveness",which can deepen university technology transfer research.