Institutionalization of technology transfer organizations in Chinese universities

Abstract

There is a lack of in-depth studies on how technology transfer organizations (TTOs) are organized and developed. This paper examines the evolution/institutionalization of TTOs in Tsinghua University (TU), as a microcosm of the development of TTOs in Chinese universities. It explores two issues in particular: what kinds of TTOs have been developed in TU and why some organizational forms become more institutionalised than others. In so doing, an analytical framework is developed by synthesizing the literature on organizational innovation and institutionalization. The analysis is based on extensive review of academic literature and policy documents, as well as on face-to-face interviews with practitioners involved in technology transfer in TU. The paper identifies the tendencies of TTO development in Chinese universities and advances theories on the institutionalization of university TTOs in general.

Keywords:

• innovation system
• third mission
• technology transfer
• university
• China
• institutionalization

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Yinfang Wu, who helped us to arrange interviews and provided relevant background information for the study. We give our special thanks to Dr Kai Rao, who was involved in our initial discussions about the study, but unfortunately was unable to join the paper writing due to a health reason.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Yuzhuo Cai is a senior lecturer and adjunct professor at the Higher Education Group (HEG), School of Management, University of Tampere, Finland, and was the acting professor of the unit during August 2013–July 2014. He is currently a guest professor at the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University, China. He is one of the two founding members of the Chinese Education Research and Exchange Centre (CEREC) at the University of Tampere, the first centre specializing in Chinese education research and education cooperation with China in the continental Europe. His main teaching and research areas are organization theory, higher education policy and management, internationalisation of higher education and innovation studies.

Han Zhang is now the Assistant Professor in College of Humanities & Social Sciences at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS). She is also a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Science and Technology Resource Management in UCAS from March 2014–November 2015 in UCAS. She received her PhD in Philosophy of Science and Technology from Tsinghua University on December, 2013. She has published articles in Research Policy, China Soft Science Magazine, Studies in Science of Science, Science and Society (Chinese). Her research interest includes higher education policy, science policy, intellectual property, national innovation system and technology transfer, etc.

Rómulo Pinheiro is Associate Professor in Public Policy and Administration at the University of Agder, Norway. He is also a Senior Researcher at Agderforskning’s Innovation group, a Visiting Professor in Higher Education Policy & Management at the Universities of Tampere (Finland) and Danube University Krems (Austria), and Affiliated Member of the HEIK Research Group (University of Oslo) and HEDDA, a consortium of European research centres with expertise in the field of higher education. Rómulo’s research portfolio lies at the interception between organizational studies, public policy and administration, regional science and innovation, and studies on higher education systems and institutions.

Notes

1. ‘Project 985’ is a national effort to create world-class universities for the twenty-first century by concentrating resources on a few selected HEIs to promote excellence.