The role of intellectual capital and university technology transfer offices in university-based technology transfer

This study develops a theoretical model to explain the relationships among intellectual capital, research outcomes, and technology transfer (TT) performance, investigating the role of university TT offices (UTTOs) in the innovation process. The authors examined these relationships by sampling 49 Taiwanese universities within a 2-year period. It is concluded that universities with specialized UTTOs indeed promote TT performance (TTP) based on university-industry cooperation. Furthermore, the results indicate that human capital is positively associated with research outcomes and relational capital. The greater the amount of relational capital, which represents the degree of university-industry cooperation, the more significant is the positive effect on research outcomes and TTP. The more research outcomes are produced, the more academic research and patent technology will be transferred to industry.