Technology Transfer Between Universities and Companies: Results of an Empirical Survey of Companies and University Researchers in Styria (Austria)

This research paper is based on a study realized for a doctoral thesis (in progress as of January 2006). The aim of the thesis is to identify suited support measures to further improve technology transfer between universities and companies. Researchers at Graz University of Technology as well as Styrian companies were questioned regarding their current technology transfer features, characteristics and importance of barriers and motives. In total 177 companies and 81 university researchers responded to the questionnaire, giving a response rate of about 12 respective 7 %. The results are interesting and allow setting up a typology for university researchers and companies following an already existing classification in combination with the importance of barriers. Unlike others the typology does not take the characteristics of companies and university researchers as starting point but their current technology transfer combined with their answers regarding the importance of barriers. The research paper presents some of the most interesting results and then introduces the typology, which can be used to identify specific support measures for the different clusters according to their actual needs