1548: Technology Transfer Efficiency of Publicly Funded Innovation-Driven Research Centers (13139)

University technology transfer has received considerable attention in the innovation and entrepreneurship literature where a main focus has been on the relative performance of technology transfer offices (TTOs) or university level outcomes. In contrast to TTOs, major publicly funded innovation-driven research centers, a key funding strategy that aims at promoting impactful university technology transfer in a particularly direct and thus efficient way, have been neglected in this research. To fill this gap, we study the technology transfer efficiency (TTE) of 46 innovation-driven university research centers funded by the Australian Research Council between 2013 and 2021. Combining data envelopment analysis and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis allows us to not only evaluate their TTE but also analyze the interdependence of causal conditions and identify equifinal case-level pathways to high (and alternatively low) TTE outcomes. We found respectable performance in most research centers, but substantial inefficiencies relating to master’s and PhD students and collaborations between the research centers and external universities, industry partners, and government entities. Our results reveal three configurational pathways to high TTE, and five pathways to low TTE, demonstrating the complex causality of the technology transfer process and providing implications for research policy and for such research centers.

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