Inside the university technology transfer office: mission statement analysis

Ciara Fitzgerald, James Cunningham

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    87 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The focus of our paper is to qualitatively explore the mission statements components of university TTOs using Pearce and David’s (Acad Manag Exec 1(2):109–115, 1987) eight components. Mission statements are the organization’s central defining purpose and focus. In essence an organizations’ raison d’etre. Given the growing importance of the role TTOs now play, understanding components of mission statements is timely, particularly during the first phase of TTO developments. To provide insights concerning these issues our study is set in the Republic of Ireland, which has one of the top performing university and public research organization technology transfer system within the European Union. Using Pearce and David (1987) well established eight mission statement components we analyzed seven Irish university TTO mission statements. We also conducted quantitative analysis on the number of mission statement components and selected variables. We found that university TTO mission statements focused primarily on two mission components—target customers and markets and principal services. From our quantitative analysis we found moderate positive correlations between patents granted and number of mission statement components. Furthermore we found there was a positive correlation between grants granted outside of Ireland and the number of mission components. Our results, albeit they are tempered by a small sample of data, have pertinent implications for TTOs.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1235-1246
    JournalThe Journal of Technology Transfer
    Volume41
    Issue number5
    Early online date19 Jun 2015
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2016

    Keywords

    • Mission
    • Mission statements
    • Mission components
    • Key drivers
    • Technology transfer offices
    • Entrepreneurial university
    • L2
    • O38
    • O39

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Inside the university technology transfer office: mission statement analysis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this