IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jtecht/v50y2025i1d10.1007_s10961-024-10097-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Which governance structures are conducive to the performance of TTOs? Evidence from Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Min Zhang

    (Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)

  • Jingjing Zeng

    (Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
    Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)

Abstract

University technology transfer offices (TTOs) are being introduced at a rapid pace, making it critical that we understand how they affect university-to-industry technology transfer performance. Despite the growing interest in TTO governance, there are very few studies on TTO governance structures and how they are empirically effective in technology transfer performance. Our study aims at contributing to the existing literature in two ways. First, we take into account the diversity of TTO governance structures from a theoretical perspective: three types of TTOs are identified: market-oriented structure TTO, hierarchy-oriented structure TTO, and hybrid structure TTO. Second, we test our hypotheses by examining the number of patents licensed and technology transfer revenue for 157 Taiwan universities from 2016 to 2018. We find that (i) market-oriented structure is positively related to both the number of patents licensed and technology transfer revenue gained, (ii) hierarchy-oriented structure negatively affects both the number of patents licensed and technology transfer revenue gained, and (iii) we further find a negative interactive effect of market-oriented structure and hierarchy-oriented structure on the number of patents licensed and technology transfer revenue gained. These findings can inform the management of policies related to the performance of university-to-industry technology transfer, calling for attention to these organization structure attributes.

Suggested Citation

  • Min Zhang & Jingjing Zeng, 2025. "Which governance structures are conducive to the performance of TTOs? Evidence from Taiwan," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 271-303, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jtecht:v:50:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10961-024-10097-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10961-024-10097-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10961-024-10097-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10961-024-10097-3?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.

    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:kap:jtecht:v:50:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10961-024-10097-3. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.