The relationship between patents, technology transfer and desorptive capacity in Korean universities

Abstract

This study sought to examine the relationship between patent rights and technology transfer performances of Korean universities and to analyze the moderating effect of the desorptive capacity of industry-academic cooperation foundations. Through this, we study the impact of universities’ patents on both the number of licenses and the license incomes of the universities. We also examine the meaning of the desorptive capacity between them. Regression analysis and structural equation modeling are performed by using the number of patents registered as an independent variable, the number of licenses and license incomes as dependent variables and the desorptive capacity as a moderating variable. The analysis shows that the patent had a positive relationship with both the number of licenses and license incomes. Desorptive capacity had no significant effect between patents and the number of technology transfers. However, it is seen as having a moderating effect between patents and licensing fees from the technology transfers. This paper meaningfully illustrates the desorptive capacity of the industry-academic cooperation foundation from the perspective of outbound open innovation and analyzes the moderating effect of desorptive capacity in relation to patent rights and technology transfer performances.