University-to-industry knowledge transfer: literature review and unanswered questions

This paper reviews the economic literature concerning university-to-industry knowledge transfer. Papers on this topic are divided into four categories. Research in the 'firm characteristics' category focuses directly on company issues, such as internal organization, resource allocation, and partnerships. In contrast, research in the 'university characteristics' stream pays little attention to the firms that commercialize inventions, but rather focuses on issues relating to the university, such as licensing strategies, incentives for professors to patent, and policies such as taking equity in return for intellectual property. The 'geography in terms of localized spillovers' stream of research considers the spatial relationship between firms and universities relative to performance in terms of knowledge transfer success. Finally, the 'channels of knowledge transfer' literature examines the relative importance of various transfer pathways between universities and firms, such as publications, patents, and consulting. Each of these research streams is discussed and key papers are described highlighting important methodologies and results. Finally, an outline of topics requiring further research in each of the four categories is offered.