Measuring the efficiency of university technology transfer

Universities provide education as well as innovations resulting from their research. This paper focuses on the service of transferring research results into other sectors. Many stakeholders such as academic researchers, technology transfer offices (TTOs) and private industry are involved in technology transfer which calls for a comprehensive approach. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach is used as a productivity evaluation tool applied to university technology transfer. The methodology included weight restrictions providing a more comprehensive metric. The results include an examination of efficiency targets for specific universities as well as peer count of inefficient universities. Evidence of significant efficiency in university technology transfer is found in many leading universities. An examination of differences between public versus private universities and those with medical schools and those without indicated that universities with medical schools are less efficient than those without. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.