The university and business incubation: Technology transfer through entrepreneurial development

Abstract

This paper reviews university programs that seek to promote technology transfer through entrepreneurial development. It describes fourkey factors (talent, technology, capital and know-how) Improving the effectiveness of technology transfer and being involved in more industry-directed research have become increasingly important in US universities. Faced with declining federal and state sources of support, rising equipment needs, and community expectations for higher levels of involvement in economic development, universities are considering new and expanded ways to transfer and commercialize technology. As a result, there are increasing opportunities for emerging as well as established companies to use university resources to develop and expand market opportunities. (1,1 0,20) This paper examines the technology-transfer process through the new-business incubator by placing the concept within a university's technology-transfer strategy, describing the incubator system, detailing success factors for tenant companies, and providing examples of selected university incubators. It presents survey data, on-site analysis, and interview results on university-related incubator development. UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY-TRANSFER APPROACHESAcademic resources for technology transfer include laboratory facilities, key personnel, research leadership, and an environment conducive to technology development. To leverage these resources, universities are experimenting with several approaches to encourage and help faculty researchers to be more For example, W.R. G race and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have an agreement to undertake microbiology studies. Research topics are proposed to a committee of four company managers and four professors. The funded projects are undertaken by the research group who report their findings to the committee. MIT retains patents and can publish the results after a review for propriety information, while Grace gets a royalty-free license.University researchers are acquiring more responsibility and authority to administer their research units. The director of the Center for Microcomputer Applications at the University of Tulsa, for example, determines the projects and the role of the university in each of the projects.Some universities are providing up-front financial support with expectations of returns from eventual sales. The University of Texas at Austin, for example, constructed a new building and laboratories on campus for use by the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (a 20-company research and development consortium) and will provide similar support for SEMATECH (a semi-conductor consortium).In many universities the research teams are gaining authority to pursue industrial support, negotiate patents, and determine royalties. And faculty are being given more flexibility to act as industry consultants, especially to firms that license faculty technologies. (18,21)

The graduation performance of technology business incubators in China’s three tier cities: the role of incubator funding, technical support, and entrepreneurial mentoring

“…Fourth, given that existing research is heavily focused on the western context, relatively little is known about whether the effects of TBI support services on the performance of the resident firms in Asian countries is the same as that in more developed countries. Finally, research has shown that the type of support services has evolved from offering a shared generic infrastructure for early stage firms operating in a variety of industrial sectors to shared tailored facilities for those operating in one/two specific industrial sectors (Allen and Rahman 1985;Hisrich and Smilor 1988;McAdam and McAdam 2008;Rothaermel and Thursby 2005b;Salvador 2011). Given the focus of much of the existing literature, it is now recognised that there is a need for research on the role that TBIs are playing in emerging and transition economies (Smith and Zhang 2012).…”

International entrepreneurship in universities: Context, emergence and actors

“…The creation of university incubators has been an institutional response of many universities to a growing demand from policy makers and funding agencies to the need for commercialization of research and creation of university-based spins-offs. Incubators enable universities to engage and mobilize internal and external networks supporting the creation of viable and sustainable university start-up firms (McAdam et al, 2006;Guerrero et al, 2014;Hisrich and Smilor, 1988). University incubators have put in place formal and informal supports for incubated firms to support their growth and development such as networking, programmes etc.…”

Exploring the motives and practices of university–start-up interaction: evidence from Route 128

“…The interaction between universities and start-ups has mainly been studied in the context of incubators (Hisrich and Smilor 1988;Thursby 2005a, 2005b), or in a more descriptive sense of the entrepreneurial university (Etzkowitz 2003;Schulte 2004;Levie 2014), but the simultaneous use of all three mechanisms has not yet been systematically assessed. This is unfortunate as the extent to which the objectives of an actor are achieved is the result of a combination of all three mechanisms.…”