What Drives University Technological Innovation Outcomes? A Re-Vitalised Investigation

Abstract

Universities are a source of technological innovation, which in turn facilitates economic growth. The Bayh–Dole Act of 1980 was enacted to support university research efforts. However, since its enactment, university technological innovation had been increasing slowly. This study applies the Technology, Organisation, and Environment framework to explore the current and future impact of university characteristics and regional industry R&D activities on university technological innovation and commercialisation. The study addresses three research gaps in the literature: (1) It investigates university and regional characteristics at the same time, (2) it includes both current and future impact on university innovation outcomes, and (3) it provides a timely update to fairly dated literature on the topic, using extensive quantitative analyses that differ from previous studies. The findings verify existing, albeit fairly dated, literature by demonstrating the positive impact of university characteristics and regional R&D activities; and extend the literature by showing their future impact to various degrees. The intricacies of the coefficients of impact enrich our understanding of how these drivers can be leveraged to boost university innovation outcomes. The results have implications on theory, policy and practice.