Technology transfer from national/federal labs and public research institutes: Managerial and policy implications

While technology transfer at universities has received considerable attention in the innovation and entrepreneurship literature, we know much less about technology transfer at national/federal labs and (non-university) public research institutes. In this article and the related special section, we aim to fill this void. We provide a rationale for our special section on technology transfer from national/federal labs and public research institutes, summarize the papers in the special section, highlight research questions, theories, data and methods, key findings and conclusions. We conclude by outlining a research agenda for multi-level research on agents, institutions, and regions to improve our understanding of the managerial and public policy implications of technology transfer from these institutions.     

The innovative impact of public research institutes: Evidence from Italy

This paper leverages on the establishment of Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) as a policy change useful to understand the causal effect of public-funded research centres on the regional innovative capacity. By relying on the Synthetic Control Method (SCM) approach and Italian NUTS-3 panel data, empirical results suggest that the establishment of IIT has positively impacted on regional innovation and high-skilled human capital, as well as on regional growth. The paper also provides evidence of knowledge spillovers from IIT within the hosting region. Finally, these results are robust to a variety of placebo permutation tests as well as several sensitivity checks, or when considering a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach.     

Technology stocks: A study on the characteristics that help transfer public research to industry

Technology transfer from public research institutes and universities to industry is an effective way to promote social and economic development. However, although many studies have explored the various factors that affect technology transfers, few focus on the characteristics of an organization's technology stocks. In this study, we test which of technological diversity, uniqueness, combinative power, and proximity make a public research entity's knowledge stocks appealing. The study is set in the developing economy of China, using the research-subsidized Project 985 universities and the Chinese academy of sciences as the origins of public research. From an ERGM analysis, we find diversity and proximity have a significant positive effect; uniqueness has a significant negative effect; and combinative power has little to no effect at all. These insights have substantial theoretical implications for scholars in the technology transfer field and practical implications for public institutions engaged in research who are looking to improve their transfer rates.     

Technology transfer systems and modes of national research institutes: evidence from the Chinese academy of sciences

Technology transfer systems (TTSs) and modes of national research institutes (NRIs) have become increasingly significant in shaping national innovation systems. However, few studies have addressed this issue in the context of emerging economies. To fill this research gap, this paper explores the TTSs and modes of Chinese NRIs based on a case study of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). We clarify the institutional factors that influence the adoption of an academy-branch-institute-level TTS, reveal the policy-driven evolvement of this multi-level TTS, and elucidate the operational mechanisms of the TTS. We find that the effective collaboration between the actors within or across the three levels of the TTS could enhance the functions of integration management, science and technology (S&T) resource allocation, and public research and development. Through a thematic synthesis approach, we identify three technology transfer modes of the CAS. These three modes exhibit an evolutionary sequence from the CAS-region cooperation mode to the incubation ecosystem mode and then to the platform-driven mode, following the progress of the Chinese S&T system reform and the repositioning of the CAS mission. These modes have diverse demands for technological cognition and resource allocation capability that can be satisfied by the co-specialised interaction among the three levels of the TTS. Apart from the theoretical implications for technology transfer studies, our findings provide managerial implications for guiding technology transfer from NRIs.     

科技服务业与制造业正逆知识转移下知识融合的协同创新研究

通过知识转移和知识融合实现创新价值共享已成为科技服务业与制造业协同发展的新途径。以知识转移理论与协同创新理论为基础,基于系统动力学视角构建了两业协同创新的动力学模型,利用Vensim DSS软件仿真,分析了随着知识融合的不断推进,两业协同创新的实现路径以及两业知识势能、知识创新率和知识转移率的变化态势,并就融合创新因子和政策因子,即制造企业知识需求、知识吸收能力、政府激励机制、财政投入、人才建设共五个因子,对两业创新率进行了灵敏度分析。结果表明,两业知识势能呈指数增长,知识创新率及知识转移率不断增加,融合创新因子和政策因子对两业创新率存在显著正向影响,研究结果可以为两业协同创新发展提供决策支持。     

研究型大学技术与创新能力转移的公共选择

 研究型大学如何有效服务国家自主创新战略，是政府、专家、学者近期关注的热点问题。本文在探讨了研究型大学技术转移与创新能力转移的基础上，提出研究型大学创新能力转移的新概念，阐述了创新能力转移过程中创新参与主体及其关系，然后从公共选择的视角分析目前我国研究型大学技术转移与创新能力转移, 这为进一步的产学研合作研究奠定了理论基础。     

A taxonomy of public research bodies: A systemic approach1

Nowadays the governments of industrialised countries, in the presence of reduced public resources, have to assign clear objectives to public research laboratories to increase the competitiveness of firms. The purpose of this article is to analyse the public research bodies of the National Research Council of Italy in order to pinpoint the main typologies operating in the national system of innovation (NSI). This research shows four main types of research institutes as drivers of NSI. The results can supply useful information to policy makers on the behaviour of these structures and on their strengths and weaknesses.     

Industrial business associations improving the internationalisation of SMEs with digital platforms: A design science research approach

This paper aims to contribute to the lack of design knowledge on digital platforms (DPs), by studying the new and specific context of DPs managed by industrial business associations (IBAs) to improve the internationalisation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A specific objective is to elicit detailed digital platform’s requirements and features for this particular organisational context. A design science research (DSR) approach is adopted to develop design propositions (the artifact), following the context-intervention-mechanism-outcome logic (CIMO-logic). The design propositions are derived for DPs that can support different types of generative mechanisms of social interaction: information sharing, collaboration, and collective action. The design propositions are obtained by balancing empirical knowledge based on interviews performed with IBAs and SMEs in Portugal and in the UK, with theoretical knowledge from the literature of information systems, DPs and collaborative networks (CNs). The utility of the design propositions is further evaluated by experts and IBAs. The findings are proved to be relevant for practice, mainly for IBAs, SMEs, and digital platform designers to develop more effective collaborative DPs and sociotechnical systems, supporting CNs and the internationalisation needs of SMEs. The knowledge generated in this study brings new design knowledge on DPs, contributing with design propositions translated into tangible and concrete requirements and capabilities, situated in a specific context and empirical setting.     

Citation analysis: A social and dynamic approach to knowledge organization

Knowledge organization (KO) and bibliometrics have traditionally been seen as separate subfields of library and information science, but bibliometric techniques make it possible to identify candidate terms for thesauri and to organize knowledge by relating scientific papers and authors to each other and thereby indicating kinds of relatedness and semantic distance. It is therefore important to view bibliometric techniques as a family of approaches to KO in order to illustrate their relative strengths and weaknesses. The subfield of bibliometrics concerned with citation analysis forms a distinct approach to KO which is characterized by its social, historical and dynamic nature, its close dependence on scholarly literature and its explicit kind of literary warrant. The two main methods, co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling represent different things and thus neither can be considered superior for all purposes. The main difference between traditional knowledge organization systems (KOSs) and maps based on citation analysis is that the first group represents intellectual KOSs, whereas the second represents social KOSs. For this reason bibliometric maps cannot be expected ever to be fully equivalent to scholarly taxonomies, but they are – along with other forms of KOSs – valuable tools for assisting users’ to orient themselves to the information ecology. Like other KOSs, citation-based maps cannot be neutral but will always be based on researchers’ decisions, which tend to favor certain interests and views at the expense of others.     

A contingency view on knowledge transfer: empirical evidence from the software industry

Reports on failures of knowledge transfer (KT) seriously accumulate. A reason for failure, claimed by contingency theory and strongly supported in other disciplines, is the lack of fit between context and configuration. Assessing the reported failures, we found substantial evidence for this view. Unfortunately, literature on KT explored context and configuration isolated, but largely ignored the fits between both and their relationships to success. Thus, we developed a contingency framework on KT including the above contingency concepts and underlying factors evident in the KT literature. Based on that, we addressed the unexplored relationships between fits and success by case study research in the software industry. In-depth interviews yielded audio-recorded statements for theory building leading to nine propositions. We encourage case study research to reach conceptual closure as well as hypotheses-testing research to achieve empirical validation.     

Beyond industry–university links: Sourcing knowledge for innovation from consultants, private research organisations and the public science-base

This paper explores the use of specialist knowledge providers as sources of information in the innovation activities of manufacturing and service firms. Specialist knowledge providers are consultancies, private research organisations and the public science-base (i.e., universities and the government research laboratories). These may be engaged by firms in co-operative arrangement for innovation or as informal sources of information. We find, as anticipated, that amongst other factors specialist knowledge providers are more likely to be engaged by firms with more open approaches to innovation, those with high levels of absorptive capacity, those with greater social capital and networking capabilities, as well as by those with deeper commitments to innovation. Overall, the use of specialist knowledge providers tends to complement firms’ own internal innovation activities and to complement other external sources of knowledge. Moreover, the individual types of specialist knowledge providers tend to complement rather than substitute for one another. Beyond this we find significant differences in the types of specialist knowledge providers used by manufacturing and service firms. Although service firms are more likely than manufacturers to use specialist knowledge providers, they are more likely to engage consultants, whilst their links with research-based organisations, including the public science-base, are weaker. We ask whether there is a case for increasing the extent to which the public science-base undertakes activities that are relevant to innovation in the services.     

基于交易费用分析范式的高校技术转让问题研究

对高校技术转让过程中的交易费用进行规范研究后发现,机会主义行为、高校技术的不确定性和企业专用性投资所产生的高交易费用是我国高校技术转让率低下的根源。因此,科技政策的效果取决于能否降低交易费用。在此基础上把科技政策划分为引导型、中介型和制度型三类进行政策效果对比分析,最后对科技政策设计的总体目标以及所应遵循的思路进行讨论。     

A platform-based approach to ambidexterity for innovation: An empirical investigation in the public sector

Innovation in the public sector plays an important role in improving the quality of public services and addressing economic and societal challenges. Most of the previous research on innovations has focused on the private sector. How organizations may achieve ambidexterity for innovations in the public sector characterized by unique constraints has been largely underexplored. Platforms have emerged as key components in organizations’ approaches to innovation. Using an empirical study in a public sector organization, this study identifies a platform-based approach that can be used to achieve ambidexterity in balancing exploitative and exploratory innovations in the public sector. Organizations facing constraints pertaining to structure, risk, and value may benefit from considering their product/service development, process management, and value formulation through this approach. This study also identifies practices in platform development, appropriation, and control that contributed to the success of the platform-based approach.     

Exploring solutions for mobile companionship: A design research approach to context-aware management

The mobile phone is not just another device; it is with you day and night, and you rely on its capabilities in work and in private. In short, the mobile phone is your companion. As your companion, it should understand your situational and informational needs. How do we increase the friendliness of your mobile phone, in order to fulfil this promise? In this paper, we explore how context awareness can be used for managing the user mobile experience. To this end, we employed a design research approach to integrate context-aware and cloud based services in an Android application. Through a user evaluation and proof-of-concept implementation we show how new technologies can increase the friendliness of your mobile phone. In so doing, we provide evidence that adaptive applications based on user context offer a fertile ground for taking mobile companionship to the next level.     

A socio-technical approach to knowledge contribution behavior: An empirical investigation of social networking sites users

Online social networking has received increasing attention as a new phenomenon among online users. As Internet users utilize online social networking websites as a useful communication tool to maintain their social networks, this study explorers online social networking websites users’ knowledge sharing in particular. This study investigated the factors which influence knowledge contribution behaviors of social networking website users by sharing through user created contents with one another. By employing a socio-technical approach, this study discussed the roles of social system factors such as ethical culture, social tie, and a sense of belonging in online social network. Additionally, this study examined technical systems factors such as structural assurance of service providers and structural assurance of the Internet. The survey method was utilized in order to empirically test the research model. The research findings and contributions are discussed as well.     

Decline of the center: The decentralizing process of knowledge transfer of Chinese universities from 1985 to 2004

University knowledge transfer, which contains both codified and non-codified knowledge, is an important source of industry innovativeness. The geographic constraint on university knowledge flows, which is commonly observed in Western countries, makes proximity with universities a big plus in creating learning regions. No systematic study has been conducted in China regarding such geographic constraint on knowledge transfer and its implications on China's nation and regional innovation systems. Taking advantage of the Chinese patent data, this paper examines the geographic variations in university-industry collaborations in China from 1985 to 2004 and shows a decentralizing/localizing trend in knowledge flows from university to industry. The blockmodel analysis further reveals the roles of different provinces and municipalities in the National Innovation System and how those had changed over time. Besides showing a vivid picture of the knowledge exchange patterns among Chinese provinces and municipalities, the results suggest that the geographic constraint on knowledge flows only becomes salient in China in recent years due to the administrative decentralization and the economic reform. As a result of these changes, less favored regions are further left behind not only due to their shortage of local university resources, but also because of the reduced extra-local knowledge support, which constitutes an important supplemental resource for regional development.     

The impact of national research funds: A regression discontinuity approach to the Chilean FONDECYT

This paper analyses the role of national research funds in promoting scientific production in emerging economies. The study focuses on the impact of the Chilean National Science and Technology Research Fund (FONDECYT). The analysis uses data drawn from international sources of bibliometric information combined with the administrative records of the program's executing unit. To measure the program's impact, we implement a regression discontinuity (RD) design on principal researchers who applied for funding between 1988 and 1997 considering as outcomes both quantity (publications up to 2002) and quality (citations up to 2005) of their scientific production. Our results show significant and positive impact in terms of publications, but no impact in terms of quality of scientific production in the proximity of the program's threshold ranking.     

A regional approach to study technology transfer through foreign direct investment: The electronics industry in two Mexican regions

This paper develops a conceptual framework and presents empirical evidence to examine technology transfer from foreign direct investment (FDI) to host regions, from a systemic perspective that integrates micro- (the firm) and meso (the region)-level analyses. This approach helps identify four different levels at which technology transfer may occur. Comprehensive fieldwork in Mexico was undertaken to collect evidence of an FDI-led, large industry (electronics) in two regions. The empirical evidence collected in this research shows that technology transfer derived from FDI may impact diverse actors of the host region (local firms, universities, research centres, industry associations), but also that its occurrence is neither automatic nor homogenous across regions.     

中国制造业绿色创新的环境效益向企业经济效益转换的制度条件初探

可持续发展是：21世纪经济发展的主题,中国制造业企业实施绿色持续创新已势在必行。而如何实现企业污染治理的环境效益向企业经济效益的转换是企业绿色持续创新的关键。本文着重分析了中国制造业实现企业绿色创新效益转换的两个制度条件：排污权交易制度和绿色会计核算体系,并指出这是中国政府绿色制度创新的重要问题。