The Journal of Technology Transfer

As the use of computer-based technology has expanded in law enforcement, one of the central questions is how technology transfer has contributed to this development Drawing on a range of past and current research studies, the paper notes that the expectations of transfer have often exceeded the realities. Factors which both inhibit and enhance technology transfer in law enforcement are therefore outlined, and recommendations for the future are set forth.

Recently, questions about gender gaps in science have extended to academic technology transfer. Using systematic data on US medical school faculty, we capture both behavior and performance, examining the hypothesis that women are less likely than men to commercialize their research findings. We pooled faculty invention data from ten departments in three Academic Health Centers from 1991 to 1998—a period when patenting had become prevalent and other researchers note that a gender gap was pronounced. Rather than focusing on patenting, we capture the first step in the commercialization process, as well as the subsequent successful licensing of faculty inventions to a company. We find no significant gender differences in the likelihood of reporting inventions or successfully commercializing them. We do find differences in the number of inventions reported, however, with women disclosing fewer inventions than their male counterparts. Our results demonstrate that gender effects are highly conditioned by employment context and resources. We attribute differences in our findings with regards to gender to the use of outcome measures that capture both behavior and performance, and the inclusion of a more extensive set of control variables.

Private sector R&D is largely concentrated in a few multinational companies (MNCs). The mobility of labor between these MNCs and the rest of the economy is therefore an important mechanism for the diffusion of knowledge and technology, but these flows are not without friction. This paper analyses in great detail the flow of labor between firms with specific emphasis on flows to and from R&D intensive MNCs. Using linked employer-employee data for Denmark, we match employees moving from R&D intensive MNCs to other employees switching jobs. We find that employees are more inclined to move between R&D intensive MNCs and their subsidiaries rather than between these firms and other firms in the economy. This is particularly true for high skill employees. Our results suggest that other domestic firms are to a larger extent kept out of the ‘knowledge spillover’ loop, which provides them with fewer opportunities to learn from the R&D intensive MNCs. In other words, R&D intensive MNCs and their subsidiaries form a kind of sub-labor market within the national labor market; employees exhibit higher mobility within this group of firms than between this group and the rest of the labor market.

Much of the controversy surrounding North-South technology transfer stems from the divergent views about the process between the sending country and the recipient country in terms of goals and objectives, the expected short-term and long-term benefits and costs, the time-frame for completion, and the basic understanding of technological innovation and its diffusion process. Some of these conflicting views have their respective theoretical foundations, others such as the causes of technological dependence cannot be explained by economics alone. To reconcile the conflicting perspectives calls for a general theoretical framework designed to examine intertemporal tradeoffs of costs and benefits, strategies of the transferer and transferee at various stages of the process, the conditions under which technology transfer is mutually beneficial, and the possible characterization of Pareto optimal arrangements.

This paper examines the role that basic research plays in the strategies pursued by industry in their interactions with federal labs. It draws on questionnaire-based data of 229 federal laboratory-industry joint R&D projects with 219 companies and 27 laboratories. The study documents the relative importance of basic research in the success of the interactions by comparing the incidence of basic research on several indicators of success. The study shows that, even though projects involving basic research tend to have higher costs, they also have a high percentage of product outputs in the short term. Typical high payoff strategies for partnership were those in which the company performed several technical roles and the federal laboratory was more narrowly focused.

The role of an individual known as a ‘linker’ is examined and the similarities between his role and those of ‘gatekeeper’, ‘opinion leader’, and ‘innovator’ are discussed in detail. Not only are the similarities among these roles pointed out but also the unique characteristics of the ‘linker’ are clarified. A Linker Model for Technology Transfer is presented showing the value of a ‘linker’ to the parent and users organizations. Managerial endeavors to understand and promote technology transfer can be facilitated by the in-depth research presented.

This paper examines supply chain value added in the US for producing assembly-centric products, which includes machinery, computers, electronics, and transportation equipment, and determines whether costs are disproportionally distributed. The implication being that reductions in resource consumption in some cost areas can disproportionally reduce total resource consumption. Efforts to develop and disseminate innovative solutions to improve efficiency can, therefore, be targeted to these high cost areas, resulting in larger efficiency improvements than might otherwise be achieved. An input–output model is used for this examination and is combined with labor data and data on assets. The top 20 industries, occupations, and industry occupation combinations contributing to production are identified. A sensitivity analysis is conducted on the model using Monte Carlo simulation. The results confirm that costs are disproportionally distributed, having a Gini coefficient of 0.75 for value added and for compensation it is 0.86. Wholesale trade, aircraft manufacturing, and the management of companies and enterprises were the industries with the largest contribution to assembly-centric manufacturing, even when including imports. Energy in the form of electricity and natural gas were discussed separately, but would rank 8th if compared to the industry rankings. In terms of occupation activities, team assemblers, general and operations managers, and sales representatives were the largest occupations. Public entities might use this model and results to identify efficiency improvement efforts that will have the largest impact on industry per dollar of expenditure.

Existing research has shown that university–industry collaboration (UIC) helps a firm achieve superior innovation outcomes. However, little is known about how UIC affects firm innovation when considering interfirm alliances. In this paper, we examine the influence of UIC on firm innovation performance by considering the interfirm alliance network. Based on a panel of 285 biopharmaceutical firms across the world over a thirty-year period from 1985 to 2014, we find that UIC enhances firm innovation performance. More alliances with other firms hinder the positive effect of UIC on firm innovation, whereas technological diversity strengthens the influence of UIC. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

University is becoming a cornerstone of the new emerging mode of governance of the generation and dissemination of knowledge as it reveals remarkable institutional advantages both in providing a solution to the knowledge trade-off and in reducing agency costs. The typical academic labor relationship emerges as an appropriate institutional device to handle the principal-agent problems when creative talents are required. The unique quasi-hierarchical setup of the academic system creates a supply of certified skills that are ready to operate on a professional basis. Such academic consultants can be paid on an ex-post per job basis matching only their variable costs. This supply leads to the creation of a specific market for research services where the demand is provided by the knowledge outsourcing of corporations. For this system to work effectively the non-exclusivity of intellectual property rights on the results of the research performed under contract is necessary. Non-exclusivity in academic employment relations should parallel non-exclusivity in knowledge ownership.