EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN KOREAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

This paper is to elucidate the determinant of technology transfer in universities in Korea. To achieve this goal, the paper relies on a unique dataset where university data were sourced from IUCF, and data were gathered from a number of sources. We apply a negative binomial regression analysis to estimate models testing 12 research hypotheses for 135 universities in Korea. Our findings show that the characteristics of research funds, research productivity and the presence of incubators within universities are positively related with financial rewards in terms of technology transfer. Unlike in the United States, research funds sponsored by the government are not related to technology transfer. Patents, technology transfer experts, firms located adjacent to the university, incubators within the university, and research productivity are positively related to technology transfer. The empirical findings in this study indicate that in order to boost technology transfer, universities should undertake cooperative research, especially with private firms, and should also use incubators at the initial stage of the technology transfer mechanism.