University technology transfer offices: The search for identity to build legitimacy
O’Kane, Conor,
Vincent Mangematin,
Will Geoghegan and
Ciara Fitzgerald
Research Policy, 2015, vol. 44, issue 2, 421-437
Abstract:
Technology transfer offices (TTOs) are of strategic importance to universities committed to the commercialization of academic knowledge. Within the university, TTOs’ relationship with academics and management is single agent-multiple principal. When two principals exist in an agency relationship, conflicting expectations can naturally arise. We explore how TTOs build legitimacy by shaping identity with university academics and management. In undertaking this research we draw on 63 interviews with TTO executives across 22 universities in the Ireland, New Zealand and the United States. We find that TTOs use identity-conformance and identity-manipulation to shape a dual identity, one scientific and the other business, with academics and management respectively. We show how this combination of identity strategies is ineffective for legitimizing the TTO. We propose that TTOs’ identity shaping strategies are incomplete and need to incorporate a wholly distinctive identity to complement and reinforce preliminary legitimacy claims made through conformance and manipulation. We discuss the potential implications of these findings for scholars, TTO executives and university management.
Keywords: Technology transfer office; Legitimacy; Identity; Strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (68)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733314001449
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
Working Paper: University Technology Transfer offices: the search for identity to build legimacy (2015) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:44:y:2015:i:2:p:421-437
DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2014.08.003
Access Statistics for this article
Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray
More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().