Inside the Black Box: Assessing TTO Performance

Thisarticleusesanoriginalthree-phaseapproachforempiricalassessmentandcomparativeevaluation oftheefficiencyofuniversitytechnologytransfer.Itisbasedonanalysisofinputsandoutputsofa disclosurephasefollowedbyavalue-addphaseandafinallicensephase,usingamultidimensional framework.Theobjectiveis tofinduniversityTechnologyTransferOffice(TTO)efficiencyand effectivenesspatternsforeachphaseaswellasoverallTTprocesses.AnetworkDataEnvelopment Analysis(DEA)modelwasusedtoanalyzeanddescribethecomplicatedTToperationalprocesses usingAssociationofUniversityTechnologyManagersdatacollectedfrom90USuniversityTTOs fortheperiod2007-2013.ItwasconcludedthatthesampledTTOsweremostinefficientintheir value-add(2nd)phaseandthattheaverageoverallefficiencyaswellastheefficiencyofdisclosure (1st)andlicense(3rd)phasesdecreasedduringthelastfiveyearsofdataanalyzed.Inaddition,in linewithotherstudies,analysissupportsthecontentionthatthepresenceofmedicalschooldoesnot increaseTTefficiencyoreffectiveness.Thepresentresearch’scontributionsfocusonthreeareas: (1)AnalysingandmodellingTTOvalorizationandcommercializationprocesswithaUMLactivity diagramtoprovideaclearpictureofTTproceduresandprocesses;(2)Proposingathree-phaseDEA frameworkshowinginput/outputindicatorscloselyrelatedtoeachphaseofprocessesratherthan ablackboxorseparatedactivities;(3)OfferingastrategytoconductempiricalstudiesonTTO’s operationalefficiencytherebyhelpingtobetterunderstandfutureresearchoperationalproblems.

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