Decision-Making Tools: University Technology Transfer Effectiveness

Academic knowledge and technology transfer has been growing in importance both in academic research and practice. A critical question in managing this activity is how to evaluate its effectiveness. The literature shows an increasing number of studies done to address this question; however, it also reveals important gaps that need more research. One novel approach is to evaluate the effectiveness of this activity from an organizational point of view, which is to measure how much knowledge and technology transfer from a university fulfills the mission of the institution. This research develops a hierarchical decision model to measure the contribution values of various knowledge and technology transfer mechanisms to the achievement of the mission. The performance values obtained from the university under investigation are applied to the model to develop a Knowledge and Technology Transfer Effectiveness Index for that university. The Index helps an academic institution assess the current performance of its knowledge and technology transfer with respect to its mission. This robust model also helps decision makers discover areas where the university is performing well, or needs to pay more attention. In addition, the university can benchmark its own performance against its peers in order to set up a roadmap for improvement. It is proved that this is the first index in the literature which truly evaluates the effectiveness of university knowledge and technology transfer from an organizational perspective. Practitioners in the area of academic technology transfer can also apply this evaluation model to quantitatively evaluate the performance of their institutions for strategic decision-making purposes.