Title: Conditioning factors of knowledge transfer and commercialisation in the context of post-socialist economies: the case of Belarusian higher education institutions

Authors: Radzivon Marozau; Maribel Guerrero

Addresses: School of Business and Management of Technology, Belarusian State University, Moskovskaya st., 5, 220007 Minsk, Belarus; Deusto Business School, Camino de Mundaiz, 50, 20012 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain ' Deusto Business School, Camino de Mundaiz, 50, 20012 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain

Abstract: The transformation of knowledge and technology originated from higher education institutions (HEIs) into valuable economic activity have become a high priority in many policy agendas across the world. Giving data limitations, especially in post-socialist economies, a few studies have investigated the resource base and capabilities that are required in these processes. The aim of this paper is to explore the moderation influence of HEIs origins on the HEI-level factors that condition the knowledge transfer and commercialisation. Adopting the resource-based theory, we test a model with 41 Belarusian HEIs for a three-year period. Our findings reveal that, in the current economic situation, post-1991 HEIs do not substantially differ in terms of transforming financial resources into commercial outputs, while the knowledge creation capability is appeared to be a significant predictor of the success in knowledge transfer and commercialisation only in the case of these HEIs.

Keywords: higher education institutions; HEIs; knowledge transfer; commercialisation; post-socialist economies; Belarus; resource-based view; RBV; knowledge creation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2016.075014

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2016 Vol.27 No.4, pp.441 - 462

Received: 12 May 2015
Accepted: 12 May 2015
Published online: 29 Feb 2016 *

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