The Journal of Technology Transfer

Although the importance of digital technology has been recognized in the entrepreneurship literature, we know relatively little about how and to what extent it influences a nation’s entrepreneurial activities. Drawing on the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystem, this study developed a conceptual model to explain the impact of digital technology on national entrepreneurship and the interactions between digital technology and other ecosystem elements. The hypotheses are tested by using unbalanced panel data of 101 countries from 2001 to 2018. The empirical results show that the level of digital technology is positively associated with the output of national entrepreneurial ecosystems, and this positive relationship is strengthened in nations with a supportive culture, high-quality institutions, supportive policies, accessible resources, and well-developed service industries. The findings highlight the importance of digital technology, provide fresh insights into the interdependence between elements and causal mechanisms in national entrepreneurial ecosystems.

This study analyzes the antecedents of technology spin-off resulting from the exploitation of patented technology developed in established firms and then transferred to a new organization. We hypothesize and empirically examine how teamwork and autonomy, two key dimensions of the established organization’s inventive activity, correlate with spin-off formation. The results, based on a large-scale survey of inventors, show that (1) inventive activities organized as teamwork are less likely to engender the creation of a new firm and (2) granting strategic autonomy increases the likelihood of a spin-off whereas structural autonomy decreases the chances of a spin-off.

This article expands understanding of gender and advancement in academic science by going into a new dimension of inquiry: Focusing on women associate professors in computing, it assesses the relationship between perceived chances for promotion to full professor and indicators of entrepreneurship, as part of key sets of individual and departmental independent variables that are also addressed. Data from a national survey of women in academic computing indicate that time spent in entrepreneurial activity does not predict excellent/good (compared to fair/poor) chances for promotion perceived by these women faculty, nor does the quantity/quality of entrepreneurial activity that they report for their home units. Departmental reward structures reported as favoring entrepreneurial activity negatively predict perceived chances for promotion. Other key individual and departmental characteristics also predict chances for promotion: faculty members’ age, collaboration, family characteristics, departmental climate, and US (compared to Canadian) location. Findings from interviews with a small subset of respondents to the survey illuminate the survey findings on the role of entrepreneurial factors in perceived chances for advancement.

This article provides a critical review and discussion of current literature on technology transfer, incubators, and academic entrepreneurship. Drawing upon the notion of robustness in social systems and public choice theory, we review, code, and taxonomize 166 studies to assess the likelihood that these initiatives will generate innovation and economic growth. We find that academic entrepreneurship initiatives are characterized by conflicting goals, weak incentive structures for universities and academics, and are contextually dependent upon factors such as university strength. Our results suggest that there are critical boundary conditions that are unlikely to be fulfilled when universities and policymakers enact policies to support academic entrepreneurship initiatives. Policymakers therefore need to be cautious in the potential design of such initiatives. We discuss how technology transfer from universities might be better achieved through alternative mechanisms such as contract research, licensing, consulting and increased labor mobility among researchers.

A robust literature has provided compelling evidence showing how digital transformation impacts entrepreneurship activity. However, only a paucity of research has linked adoption of new technologies to innovation, value creation, knowledge transfer and performance across different stages of the entrepreneurial growth continuum. This special issue fills this gap in the literature by focusing on if, how and why adoption of digital technologies and embeddedness in the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem enhances innovative activity and firm performance during the early and later stages of market entry. In particular, this special issue examines how digital transformation facilitates entrepreneurial, innovation, and social outputs along the entrepreneurial journey as well as why and how digital technologies may facilitate the interaction between economic agents and re-combination of internal resources and capabilities with those available externally. In doing so, this special issue unpacks a nuanced relationship between the diversity of new technologies and knowledge, their suitability and applicability for entrepreneurship and at different growth stages. This study offers policy implications and future research roadmap.

This article describes the process by which two industries—the environmental and pharmaceutical—survive the funding gap in new technology development known as the “valley of death”. The article (1) defines the valley of death, including a brief description of the causes; (2) describes private financial resources that the pharmaceutical industry has used successfully, such as internal corporate reinvestment in research and development and external venture capital funds, but which the environmental industry has yet to adequately cultivate; (3) describes potential public financial vehicles that can be used by both the pharmaceutical and environmental industries to fund development and demonstration; and (4) offers an analysis and makes recommendations for government technology policy makers interested in learning about environmental protection through the successful commercialization practices of government/industry partnerships.

In the last decades the term sustainability has become indispensable for society, governments and companies. Its correct implementation is of utmost importance, and therefore public institutions continuously promote the actions of sustainable development. During the pandemic, universities adapted to online teaching, using different platforms or even social media. The intensity of social media use has had positive and negative impacts. Several studies have linked the use of social media to sustainable development. Therefore, this study analyses the intensity of social media use in public universities and the relationship between the three dimensions of sustainability. To achieve the objectives set out, a sample of 447 users was used, and the data was analysed based on PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling). Variance-based SEM is a methodological option to carry out analyses that measure the simultaneous behaviour of dependence relationships. The results have shown that the intensity of the use of social media and the economic sustainability of universities is weak, even if it is positive. Furthermore, there is a strong and positive relationship between the three dimensions of sustainability at the university level. This study contributes to the academic literature on the subject and highlights the critical role of higher education institutions in promoting sustainability.

The objective of this paper is to analyse the effects of international R&D cooperation on firms’ economic performance. Our approach, based on a complete data set with information about Spanish participants in research joint ventures supported by the EU Framework Programme during the period 1995–2005, establishes a recursive model structure to capture the relationship between R&D cooperation, knowledge generation and economic results, which are measured by labour productivity. In the analysis we take into account that the participation in this specific type of cooperative projects implies a selection process that includes both the self-selection by participants to join the consortia and the selection of projects by the European Commission to award the public aid. Empirical analysis has confirmed that: (1) R&D cooperation has a positive impact on the technological capacity of firms, captured through intangible fixed assets and (2) the technological capacity of firms is positively related to their productivity.

Two main trends or developments could be identified as leading toward a drastic change in the higher education sector. First, the rapid increase and importance of the industrialized and knowledge based sector led to a radical shift away from the Arts & Humanities towards all fields of the natural sciences, engineering and the emergence of new fields like management and finance. Secondly, globalization and the interrelatedness of markets and the increased competition for scarce resources, in particular knowledge and human capital. This special issue of the Journal of Technology Transfer is dedicated to these challenges and issues from a mostly European perspective.