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Technology transfer (TT) from universities to manufacturing firms is important for enhancing innovation performance (IP) and ultimately improving competitiveness. However, TT is hampered by bureaucracy, inertia, inefficiency, cognitive dissonance, and low research and development activity. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between TT from universities to manufacturing firms and their IP. This study was conducted based on Megnigbeto's (2018) triple helix game theory. A mixed-method approach was used. The independent variable was TT, measured in terms of technology spillover, networking, and the presence of accelerators and incubators within a firm's locality. The dependent variable was IP, measured through innovation output and innovation efficiency. This study used an explanatory sequential research design. The target population was manufacturing firms in Kenya, identified using a multi-stage sampling strategy. Primary data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires, interview schedules, and checklists. Linear regressions, hierarchical multiple moderated regressions, structural equation modeling, and partial least squares were used to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that TT from universities significantly influences IP in manufacturing firms. Universities are important intermediaries of TT in manufacturing firms in Kenya because of their improved IP and competitiveness. Universities should create dynamic linkages with industries and adopt an engaged learning approach in their programs to create greater and more unique values for enhanced competitiveness and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demand for solving systemic problems has resulted in the need for new forms of innovation. Accordingly, the concept of innovation ecosystem has emerged. Ecosystems are intrinsically more fluid than networks, which set ups the need to understand and orchestrate the internal dynamics of innovation ecosystem in order to have successful innovation outcomes. The dynamics of ecosystems, however, is not well understood. In this paper the dynamics of innovation ecosystems has been studied by applying the methodology of system dynamics. The purpose of the study is to support the creation of innovation ecosystems and the orchestration of existing ecosystems so that they could be more successful. Key factors generating dynamics in innovation ecosystems were identified. They form the elements of the system dynamics model of innovation ecosystems. The causal loop structure between the model elements indicates how the key factors of dynamics influence the outcome of ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to show how activity theory in the socio-technical systems paradigm can assist in understanding and managing system innovation. We conceptualize sociotechnical systems to address societal needs as activity systems and system innovations as transformations of such systems. Transformations result from resolving contradictions that develop due to technical and social change within and between the activities carried out by various agencies to fulfill societal needs. Along this line, the explanation of system innovations focuses on identifying emerging contradictions, resolution initiatives, and their outcomes, whereas the governance of system innovations can be carried out by interactively developing policies through successive interventions to resolve contradictions. We demonstrate the employment of activity theory to understand the transformation of the recorded music socio-technical system towards streaming, as well as to facilitate the management of the transition of the olive oil-producing sector at the regional level towards a circular economy through the adoption of innovative waste-processing technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The age of information has given rise to the demand for higher education institutions (HEIs) to produce graduates capable of producing innovation and ultimately contribute to improving the South African (SA) economy. Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine whether graduates who enter the business environment demonstrate the knowledge and capability to produce business innovation through knowledge and skills acquired in HEIs. Method: An online questionnaire, was used to collect data from 69 of the 100 participants from the South African Business Innovation Community (Innovation Summit) (SABIC) and the Innovation, Sustainability and Visionary Leadership Group (ISVL). The demography ranged from company representatives, government representatives, entrepreneurs, academics, etc. Data were collected were analysed through inferential statistical analysis with the support from Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: Based on the findings, an equal distribution exists between seldom and often, which indicates tension about whether graduates seldomly demonstrated the ability to produce effective business innovation or whether they often demonstrated the ability to produce business innovation. Conclusion: Higher education institutions play a vital role in preparing graduates for the world of work by transferring knowledge. It is therefore significant for HEI's to transfer knowledge and skills that improve graduates' capability to innovate, think critically and solve complex problems and contribute to the SA economy. Contribution: Given the state of youth unemployment there is a need for universities to produce graduates capable of effective innovation. This article focused on determining whether graduates possess the knowledge and capability to produce business innovation from the knowledge and skills transferred by HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of the computer field, the Internet has become the main way of education in today's era. The development of computer technology and big data has brought innovation and opportunities to the teaching mode of ideological and political courses in colleges and universities. Due to the dynamic change of big data, there are many difficulties in the establishment of ideological and political course models in colleges and universities. This paper studies the innovation of ideological and political course modes in colleges and universities on the network platform under the background of big data. This paper mainly compares the traditional teaching mode and explores the formal modeling method of network platform education. The discrete dynamic modeling technology of the complex system is used to model the formal process of online education. Then, it carries out nonlinear prediction modeling for the operation efficiency and traffic change of the network platform under the big data environment and uses dynamic modeling to predict the learning effect of college students' ideological and political course mode. The results show that the formal method of education under dynamic modeling can improve the defects of traditional teaching and give full play to the advantages of network platform teaching. Improving the teaching mode of network platform can improve students' learning efficiency. Finally, in the dynamic model prediction, the problem of big data affecting the model results is improved, and the accuracy of the prediction model is improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence technology has become an important part of the development of Internet technology. Artificial intelligence technology can help colleges and universities optimize the network ideological and political teaching system. Artificial intelligence technology provides more accurate data resources and rich and reliable educational technology means for online public mental health education in colleges and universities. This paper comprehensively uses a variety of methods such as qualitative and quantitative analysis, case and empirical analysis, literature analysis, and artificial intelligence technology. Artificial intelligence technology has been closely integrated with online public mental health education in colleges and universities. The model systematically analyzes the optimization methods of artificial intelligence technology methods for the online public mental health education system in colleges and universities, and constructs an innovation system for online public mental health education in colleges and universities. Based on the comprehensive analysis of artificial intelligence and public health in colleges and universities, this paper further proposes the application of artificial intelligence technology in online public mental health education in colleges and universities. On this basis, the model conducts an in-depth analysis of artificial intelligence technology and the online public mental health innovation system. The model supports the development of ideological and political teaching in colleges and universities through various forms such as idea innovation, path innovation, carrier innovation, and mechanism innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a distributed computing technology, cloud computing has the characteristics of fast processing speed, large-capacity data processing, and high overall efficiency. With the continuous development of communication technology today, cloud computing technology has begun to be applied in various industries and has promoted the development and progress of the industry. As an important part of college education, ideological and political education in colleges and universities is also constantly developing. The integration of cloud computing and ideological and political education is the main trend in the future. At present, the application research of cloud computing and wireless communication technology in the ideological and political education of colleges and universities has obtained some results, but there are still some problems. Therefore, the research on innovative methods of ideological and political education is extremely important. At present, under the attention of all walks of life, scholars have strengthened the research on new paths of ideological and political education in colleges and universities, and they are also constantly experimenting with innovative methods. In this context, this paper studies the current situation of ideological and political education in colleges and universities through questionnaire surveys and analyzes the innovative mode of ideological and political education in colleges and universities in the context of cloud computing through the K-means clustering algorithm model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test whether there is a link between the performance of universities, measured through a concept of efficiency, and the economic development of the regions in which they operate. Indicators of teaching, research, and third mission are considered as outputs. To handle endogeneity problems between the efficiency of universities and economic development, a system generalized method of moments and then an instrumental variable approach are used. Our findings reveal that the presence of efficient universities fosters local economic development. Knowledge spillovers occur to areas that are in close geographical proximity to efficient universities. Results are robust to different estimation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past 30 years has seen an escalating interest in the potential role of universities in contributing to their regional economies, reflected in the increasing trend for regional innovation strategies to ascribe a central role for universities, particularly in peripheral, institutionally thin places. The global economic crisis and subsequent austerity measures implemented in many developed economies have put further pressure on universities from national and regional policymakers to become more explicitly involved in contributing to their local economies in order to justify their public funding. This paper will draw on the academic literature to consider how justified this focus is by questioning whether universities are willing or even able to play the roles expected of them in contributing to regional innovation. It will critique an approach to policymaking that often views universities as homogenous actors in the regional innovation system and places an over reliance on imitating success stories from other places without sufficient consideration of the specificities of local conditions. It will argue for a more realistic and nuanced approach to involving universities in regional innovation policy, concluding with key insights for both universities and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of large-scale experimental instrument sharing platform is not only an important effort to improve the utilization rate of large-scale experimental instruments, but also an effective way for local colleges to fully utilize and save school resources. The large-scale experimental instrument sharing platform provides a solid guarantee for science and engineering students to use instruments comprehensively, flexibly and rapidly. The fundamental purpose of the construction of a large-scale experimental instrument sharing platform is to promote exchanges and cooperation between disciplines and to improve the quality of personnel training through the sharing of instruments. Furthermore, it is conducive to promote technological innovation exchanges between universities, universities and research institutes, universities and enterprises, and promote the realization of national strategic goals of becoming a scientific and innovative country. This paper analyzes the necessity of large-scale instrument sharing work in local colleges and universities, and expounds the exploration and practice of Beijing University of Technology, in order to guide the research of large-scale equipment sharing in local universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many European countries have followed the American example by changing the intellectual property laws governing university technology transfer from university inventorship to university ownership. The Scandinavian countries have chosen different paths as Denmark and Norway changed their laws in favor of university ownership, while Sweden retained its university inventor laws. This longitudinal study shows increasing technology transfer organization (TTO) capacity in all three countries regardless of change in intellectual property rights (IPR) framework or not. Danish and Norwegian TTOs increased their use of the license commercialization strategy, with variations at the TTO level, while the Swedish universities TTOs have maintained their use of the spin-off commercialization strategy. The relative use of the two commercialization strategies, licensing and spin-offs, is indirectly influenced by the IPR framework, and more directly by the designs of the policy intent of the university technology transfer system, the government funding system, the TTOs access to business development resources and competence, and monitoring of the university TTOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the development of university-business cooperation (UBC) in Finland in the context of the University Reform Act of 2009, drawing on the experience of four universities: Aalto University, University of Jyväskylä, University of Turku, and Lappeenranta University of Technology. Six UBC dimensions are examined: institutional context, stakeholders, motivations, facilitators/inhibitors, benefits, and drawbacks. We find that UBC, while a relatively recent process, is growing fast in dynamic local innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems. The University Act of 2009 had an uneven effect on the six UBC dimensions, with the most visible impact being manifested on motivations. Aalto University's leading position in UBC and strong capacity to raise public and private funding has a dual effect: while being a major achievement, it also tends to polarize the Finnish universities financially, through a Matthew effect that may slow down UBC development in other universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to argue that innovation system foresight (ISF) can significantly contribute to the third mission of universities by creating an active dialogue between universities, industry and society. Design/methodology/approach – This paper’s approach is conceptual. The authors analyse the third mission and relevant literature on innovation systems and foresight to explain how and why foresight contributes to the third mission. Findings – The authors propose that foresight contributes to the third mission of universities, particularly to the research and development and innovation dimensions through the development of joint understanding of the agendas and future needs of stakeholders. In addition, foresight enables education to be designed to address identified needs. Research limitations/implications – The findings are both conceptual and exploratory in nature. Thus, the argument needs further examination through a broader study on foresight in the university–industry context and/or longitudinal research on the outcomes and impact of foresight in this context. Practical implications – The findings highlight the importance of understanding the systemic nature of innovation and its role in economic development. Universities must understand their role within the larger innovation system to fulfil the potential of economic development and by extension, their third mission. Originality/value – The paper outlines a novel approach of using ISF to promote university–industry partnerships and the growth of innovation systems. The paper also contributes to the discussion of the third mission by outlining that mission in practical terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities can significantly contribute to the regional development and innovation capability of a city if the knowledge produced in universities can be appropriately cycled back to the city in the form of technological innovation. Technology parks and technology transfer offices (TTOs), as urban knowledge and innovation spaces, are two important channels of building research platforms with enterprises where universities can disseminate knowledge. While technology parks create space for knowledge generation and innovation within a city, university TTOs play a critical role in enhancing knowledge spillover and creating new start-up firms. This paper highlights the contribution universities can make to Istanbul's potential of becoming an innovative city that houses successful urban knowledge and innovation spaces. By conducting interviews with the managers of technoparks and TTOs in Istanbul, we explore how the existence of technoparks and TTOs within a university affects the success of technology-transfer mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A commonly offered justification for patent trolls or non-practicing entities ("NPEs") is that they serve as a middleman, facilitating innovation and bringing new technology from inventors to those who can implement it. We survey those involved in patent licensing to see how often patent license demands actually led to innovation or technology transfer. We find that very few patent license demands actually lead to new innovation; most demands simply involve payment for the freedom to keep doing what the licensee was already doing. Surprisingly, this is true not only of NPE licenses but even of licenses from product-producing companies and universities. Our results cast significant doubt on one common justification for patent trolls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the influence of universities on Italian firms' probability to innovate. Using firm-level data, we focus on institutionalized technology transfer (TT) activities in universities, namely spin-offs, patents, and research contracts. Results show that TT activities play a significant role in the probability to innovate by Italian manufacturing firms located in the same province as the university. Nevertheless, the effect is not uniform: the contribution of university TT activities to the probability of firms' innovating is concentrated in certain territorial areas (North-East and Center) and sectors (science based and scale intensive) and among firms that are large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the center of knowledge and technological innovation, universities have occupied an important position in the technology transfer to enterprise. The ability of timely and efficient application of the scientific and technological knowledge is a key factor which determines economic growth performance of a country. The efficiency and direction of knowledge flow directly determine the benefit of these applications. In this paper, based on the statistics of Chinese universities science and technology from 2002 to 2011, the key factors which affect university R&D efficiency are figured out by applying grey incidence models; output performance and transfer performance are predicted by optimal GM(l, l) model. According to the above, the restriction mechanism of transfer performance for university R&D results are analyzed, and the prospect model is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the important role of the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) of an institution or university in promoting the market potential of a researcher's innovation. Topics covered include the benefits of having a personalized relationship with the TTO for postdocs, the importance of a postdoc to be transparent with his or her research mentor, and tips on how to build a coalition of people who will help in the technology transfer process of a postdoc.

This work investigates the determinants of patenting at Italian universities. We test the effect of public and external funds, in terms of commercial activity by universities, towards the propensity of universities to file patents at the European Patent Office. We then estimate the effect of several variables referring to the contextual characteristics of both university and localisation. The results suggest that, while in the southern regions of Italy commercial income bears a negative effect on the patenting activity of universities, in the other regions we register an important positive effect. We moreover find that the adoption of internal university regulations relating to patenting and the fact of being embedded in an innovative region are factors that exert a positive influence on the university rate of application for patents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bogotá is facing constraints implemented in order to strengthen its innovation capabilities and to institutionalize itself as a Regional Innovation System (RIS). Even though the city has the largest number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), research institutions, and technological development centres in Colombia, it is not yet positioned as an RIS. It will be necessary to do an organizational redesign in terms of the entities that comprise Bogotá and thereof its governance. The main key players of each environment were identified based on the primary role played by the different system elements. A comparative analysis was developed over time (evolution) and space (with other countries and levels of excellence) of some successful innovation cities through a methodology called Innovacities. This methodology allowed for identification of the size of the backlog confronted by the city at the frontier of technological development worldwide and the most critical factors needed to generate the breakthrough innovations to achieve world-class level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th is paper presents an overview of patenting activities carried out by Brazilian public universities. Th e analysis is based on data and information collected directly at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), at the Technology Transfer Offi ce (TTO) at each university studied, as well as at the Lattes Database from the National Research Council (CNPq). Th e main results show a signifi cant increase in the number of patents fi led by Brazilian universities in the most recent period; a geographical concentration of academic patents in the South-eastern region, mainly in the São Paulo State; the leadership of FAPESP as the main coassignee; the diff erent licensing strategies adopted by universities and the high level of academic maturity of the inventors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firm creation is used by universities not only to transfer technology to society but also to contribute to the development of the regional economy. However, due to the relatively recent character of the phenomenon of the university spin-offs, the empirical studies are not plentiful on the topic. From a resource based view, this paper analyses what universities' resources have an influence on the spin-off creation. We find that financial and institutional resources are significantly positively associated with university entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While policy recognises the need to facilitate university--industry technology transfer (UITT), international studies indicate that the setup and effectiveness of the associated instruments is highly context-specific. We examine the reorientation of Irish universities in the direction of facilitating UITT, with a substantive focus on the role of Ireland's technology transfer offices. This paper also questions how academic research is changing in line with policy rhetoric. We find that Irish university research and the management of its output are changing in a manner that is not incompatible with UITT, although with significant resource and skills constraints. These findings hold important lessons for national economic and innovation systems of comparable size, with a development trajectory shaped by foreign direct investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Bayh-Dole act, decreased federal funds to research-intensive and extensive universities resulted in a search for alternative resources to continue research activities. Changes made by higher education institutions in strategic orientation initiated the development of technology transfer offices designed to support patent development, licensure to corporations, and spin-off of entrepreneurial efforts. Researchers seek explanatory models to understand variances in university success; however, current models lack full descriptive power. Therefore, we first identify the current research base on technology transfer; propose an alternative view; and, recommend propositions and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of entrepreneurial initiatives within universities on scientific careers. Based on the career accounts of university-based bioscientists involved in a government-sponsored entrepreneurship training initiative, the paper explores the concept of academic entrepreneurialism. Three groups were identified in the data. First, academic entrepreneurs, who tended to be more experienced scientists and were now able to capitalise on their science. Second, those interested in technology transfer, who saw their career path taking them away from science, and finally a group of younger scientists who were trying to develop their career capital but were unsure what direction their career would take. The implications of these different groups for the management of universities and the development of knowledge are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the state of the literature on the role that universities perform in the development of regional innovation systems. The predominant focus in the literature has been on institutional analysis of university-industry technology transfer. This is important but tends to underestimate the potentially broad-based 'third role' of universities in regional systems, as well as exploring the nature of, and possible explanations for, differences in the roles that universities perform in different regional settings. An analytical framework is proposed for considering the nature of the role of universities in the development of regional innovation systems and explanation of variation in the roles performed by universities in different regional settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates a fellowship scheme aiming to overcome attitudinal and operational barriers towards university technology transfer. We propose barriers exist because of the focus of many academics exclusively within a peer review research network. We explore the case of the Medici Fellowship programme that was implemented in biomedical departments across five universities located in the midlands of England. Our evidence suggests that such fellowship programmes, through the retraining of academics, may have a positive impact on the commercialisation of research. In particular, the fellows, through the enhancement of their social and human capital, are able to act as agents of attitudinal change in their host departments and are seen to build bridges into external business networks that can provide early stage funding, market and legal information and help identify potential customers for nascent academic entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various strategies and models have been developed to implement successful technology transfer in Indian universities, many of which are inspired from existing approaches in developed countries such as the United States. This article provides an insight on the prevailing strategy and ways to streamline technology transfer in the Indian academic scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All of Africa's emerging economies are faced with developmental challenges, which can be partly ameliorated using effective University–Industry technology transfer. While technology transfer remains at the infant stage, sparsely documented, and with no complex ongoing processes in many African societies, Universities in Africa are making efforts in University–Industry collaborations aimed at bringing significant improvements to the continent in a bid to drive national innovation and regional economic development. In this paper, we attempt to evaluate the progress made so far by Nigerian Universities in technological innovation transfer, in order to suggest ways for possible future progress. To do this, crucial technology transfer resource factors (inputs), namely, the number of linkage projects funded by the "African Research Council" (ARC), consortium membership of the University's technology transfer office, and the number of doctoral staff at the University's technology transfer office, were checked against a set of performance measures (number of executed licenses, amount of licensing royalty income, number of spin-offs created, and the number of spin-offs created with university equity), using data envelopment analysis and multiple regression, respectively. Results suggest that Universities that possess better resource factors reported higher outputs on most of the performance indicators applied. In addition, it was observed that Universities with greater ability to effectively transfer knowledge had higher technology commercialization performance and financial sustainability. The implication of these results is that Universities in Africa need to develop in line with the technology transfer resource (input) factors suggested within this study, as this is the way to go for better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most universities, academic institutions and not-for-profit research organizations now have technology transfer offices that bridge the divide between academia and industry. Our two interviewees this month discuss the career opportunities offered by this discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]