IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v90y2023ics0038012123002574.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring the knowledge transfer efficiency of social science in Chinese universities from a think tank perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Kun
  • Wupur, Abduhalik
  • Abudouguli, Ailifeire
  • Yang, Guo-liang

Abstract

This paper aims to observe the transformation of Chinese universities into think tanks and the adoption of new forms of promoting knowledge transfer in the social sciences, addressing the current lack of quantitative research on this topic in academia. The study introduces a two-stage network DEA and Malmquist index to analyze the transfer of social sciences in universities. The transfer process is divided into scientific research and knowledge transfer stages, and their changes from 2011 to 2019 are measured. The findings are as follows: Firstly, from 2011 to 2019, the global efficiency of universities increased from 0.415 to 0.469. Research efficiency improved from 0.506 to 0.597, and transfer efficiency increased from 0.117 to 0.218. This indicates intensified competition in both research and transfer stages, although knowledge transfer is still at a relatively low level. Secondly, the overall efficiency of universities declined by an average of 1.5 % per year. Research efficiency declined by 2.8 % per year, while transformation efficiency improved by 9.6 % per year. Thirdly, the decline in efficiency is not due to a reduction in the academic competence of the university but is influenced by publishing factors. Additionally, the potential for improvement in transfer efficiency is limited by the number of senior officials and their attention resources. Lastly, due to the regulation that research reports are equivalent to journal papers in Chinese universities, there may be signs of knowledge transfer replacing basic research in a few universities. This could potentially harm the basic research of Chinese social sciences. The experience of Chinese universities can provide a reference for promoting the knowledge transfer of social sciences in other countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Kun & Wupur, Abduhalik & Abudouguli, Ailifeire & Yang, Guo-liang, 2023. "Measuring the knowledge transfer efficiency of social science in Chinese universities from a think tank perspective," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:90:y:2023:i:c:s0038012123002574
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2023.101745
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012123002574
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2023.101745?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Siegel, Donald S. & Waldman, David & Link, Albert, 2003. "Assessing the impact of organizational practices on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices: an exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 27-48, January.
    2. David Budtz Pedersen & Jonas Følsgaard Grønvad & Rolf Hvidtfeldt, 2020. "Methods for mapping the impact of social sciences and humanities—A literature review," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 4-21.
    3. Claudia Curi & Cinzia Daraio & Patrick Llerena, 2012. "University technology transfer: how (in)efficient are French universities?," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 36(3), pages 629-654.
    4. James A. Cunningham & Erik E. Lehmann & Matthias Menter & Nikolaus Seitz, 2019. "The impact of university focused technology transfer policies on regional innovation and entrepreneurship," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 1451-1475, October.
    5. Link, Albert N. & van Hasselt, Martijn, 2019. "On the transfer of technology from universities: The impact of the Bayh–Dole Act of 1980 on the institutionalization of university research," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 472-481.
    6. Olmos-Peñuela, Julia & Castro-Martínez, Elena & D’Este, Pablo, 2014. "Knowledge transfer activities in social sciences and humanities: Explaining the interactions of research groups with non-academic agents," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 696-706.
    7. Chapple, Wendy & Lockett, Andy & Siegel, Donald & Wright, Mike, 2005. "Assessing the relative performance of U.K. university technology transfer offices: parametric and non-parametric evidence," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 369-384, April.
    8. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    9. Thursby, Jerry G. & Kemp, Sukanya, 2002. "Growth and productive efficiency of university intellectual property licensing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 109-124, January.
    10. Ang, Sheng & Chen, Chien-Ming, 2016. "Pitfalls of decomposition weights in the additive multi-stage DEA model," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 139-153.
    11. Guo, Chuanyin & Abbasi Shureshjani, Roohollah & Foroughi, Ali Asghar & Zhu, Joe, 2017. "Decomposition weights and overall efficiency in two-stage additive network DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(3), pages 896-906.
    12. Chen, Yao & Cook, Wade D. & Li, Ning & Zhu, Joe, 2009. "Additive efficiency decomposition in two-stage DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(3), pages 1170-1176, August.
    13. Younhee Kim, 2013. "The ivory tower approach to entrepreneurial linkage: productivity changes in university technology transfer," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 180-197, April.
    14. Degl'Innocenti, Marta & Kourtzidis, Stavros A. & Sevic, Zeljko & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2017. "Bank productivity growth and convergence in the European Union during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 184-199.
    15. Jerry G. Thursby & Marie C. Thursby, 2002. "Who Is Selling the Ivory Tower? Sources of Growth in University Licensing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(1), pages 90-104, January.
    16. David A. Kirby & Hala H. El Hadidi, 2019. "University technology transfer efficiency in a factor driven economy: the need for a coherent policy in Egypt," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 1367-1395, October.
    17. Dimitris Despotis & Gregory Koronakos & Dimitris Sotiros, 2016. "Composition versus decomposition in two-stage network DEA: a reverse approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 71-87, February.
    18. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    19. Claire Donovan, 2011. "State of the art in assessing research impact: introduction to a special issue," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 175-179, September.
    20. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Isidoro Mazza, 2016. "Efficiency assessment and convergence in teaching and research in Italian public universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1063-1094, June.
    21. Compagnucci, Lorenzo & Spigarelli, Francesca, 2020. "The Third Mission of the university: A systematic literature review on potentials and constraints," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    22. Maria Carmen Huian & Marco Bisogno & Marilena Mironiuc, 2022. "Technology transfer performance of public research institutes: the case of Romania," Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(1), pages 41-64, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Xiaolei & Guan, Zhongcheng & Yang, Guoliang & Pan, Hao & Xiong, Xi, 2024. "Evaluation of technology transfer performance for Chinese universities based on a dual-game cross-efficiency model," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Xing & Wu, Xianhua & Zhang, Weipan, 2024. "A new DEA model and its application in performance evaluation of scientific research activities in the universities of China's double first-class initiative," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    2. Khoveyni, Mohammad & Fukuyama, Hirofumi & Eslami, Robabeh & Yang, Guo-liang, 2019. "Variations effect of intermediate products on the second stage in two-stage processes," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 35-48.
    3. Lee, Kyootai & Jung, Hyun Ju, 2021. "Does TTO capability matter in commercializing university technology? Evidence from longitudinal data in South Korea," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    4. Sotiros, Dimitris & Koronakos, Gregory & Despotis, Dimitris K., 2019. "Dominance at the divisional efficiencies level in network DEA: The case of two-stage processes," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 144-155.
    5. Ma, Ding & Cai, Zhishan & Zhu, Chengkai, 2022. "Technology transfer efficiency of universities in China: A three-stage framework based on the dynamic network slacks-based measurement model," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Mei Ho & John Liu & Wen-Min Lu & Chien-Cheng Huang, 2014. "A new perspective to explore the technology transfer efficiencies in US universities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 247-275, April.
    7. Liu, Hui-hui & Yang, Guo-liang & Liu, Xiao-xiao & Song, Yao-yao, 2020. "R&D performance assessment of industrial enterprises in China: A two-stage DEA approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    8. Younhee Kim, 2013. "The ivory tower approach to entrepreneurial linkage: productivity changes in university technology transfer," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 180-197, April.
    9. Dariush Akbarian, 2021. "Network DEA based on DEA-ratio," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-26, December.
    10. Kaffash, Sepideh & Azizi, Roza & Huang, Ying & Zhu, Joe, 2020. "A survey of data envelopment analysis applications in the insurance industry 1993–2018," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(3), pages 801-813.
    11. Zhang, Linyan & Chen, Kun, 2019. "Hierarchical network systems: An application to high-technology industry in China," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 118-131.
    12. Minh‐Anh Thi Nguyen & Ming‐Miin Yu, 2020. "Decomposing the operational efficiency of major cruise lines: A network data envelopment analysis approach in the presence of shared input and quasi‐fixed input," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(8), pages 1501-1516, December.
    13. Claudia Curi & Cinzia Daraio & Patrick Llerena, 2015. "The productivity of French technology transfer offices after government reforms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(28), pages 3008-3019, June.
    14. Wade D. Cook & Chuanyin Guo & Wanghong Li & Zhepeng Li & Liang Liang & Joe Zhu, 2017. "Efficiency Measurement of Multistage Processes: Context Dependent Numbers of Stages," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 34(06), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Suvvari Anandarao & S. Raja Sethu Durai & Phanindra Goyari, 2019. "Efficiency Decomposition in two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis: An application to Life Insurance companies in India," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 17(2), pages 271-285, June.
    16. Li, Yongjun & Liu, Jin & Ang, Sheng & Yang, Feng, 2021. "Performance evaluation of two-stage network structures with fixed-sum outputs: An application to the 2018winter Olympic Games," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    17. Jiawei Yang & Lei Fang, 2022. "Average lexicographic efficiency decomposition in two-stage data envelopment analysis: an application to China’s regional high-tech innovation systems," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 312(2), pages 1051-1093, May.
    18. Esteban Lafuente & Jasmina Berbegal-Mirabent, 2019. "Assessing the productivity of technology transfer offices: an analysis of the relevance of aspiration performance and portfolio complexity," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 778-801, June.
    19. Ding, Tao & Zhang, Yun & Zhang, Danlu & Li, Feng, 2023. "Performance evaluation of Chinese research universities: A parallel interactive network DEA approach with shared and fixed sum inputs," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    20. Claudia Curi & Cinzia Daraio & Patrick Llerena, 2013. "What is the productivity change of a university TTOs system at its early stage of development? Evidence from France," DIAG Technical Reports 2013-03, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza".

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:90:y:2023:i:c:s0038012123002574. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/seps .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.