A study on Organisation of Technology Transfer in Research Institutions

Research Institutions (RIs) in last decades have been involved in both production of technological applications and commercialisation of research results for the sake of technology transfer. These tasks are frequently taken as overlapping by both practitioners and theory, whereas they should be ideally separated. The present paper focus on the latter, by questioning why RIs have to be involved into commercialisation of research. Drawing on the identification of coordination needs among demand and supply of technological opportunities, evidence of five extensive case studies of Technology Transfer Organisations (TTOs) belonging to RIs is analysed, with regard to the efficiency of the process of opportunity recognition. The claim for superior efficiency of RIs in technology transfer depends, in a static perspective, on an expected superior capacity of TTOs to manage existing knowledge. However, in practice, TTOs do not always exploit available sources of efficiency gains. Implications for management of knowledge and technology transfer are discussed.