Title: Barriers to technology transfer in medical centres: a contextualised embeddedness perspective

Authors: Michal Roll; Miri Lerner; Eli Gimmon

Addresses: Division of Research and Development, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre, 6 Weizmann Street, Tel Aviv 6423906, Israel ' The School of Management and Economics, The Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, 2 Rabenu Yeruham Street, Yaffo, Israel ' Department of Economics and Management, Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee 12210, Israel

Abstract: The vital sector of medical centres and hospitals remains poorly investigated in the literature on technology transfer (TT). The current article explores the mechanisms adopted and locally generated in medical centres to overcome barriers to TT. A qualitative study was conducted at the six largest medical centres in Israel to identify those barriers to TT as reflected in patent applications. The study was based on an embeddedness theory and on previous studies conducted in academic settings. Our findings indicated that: 1) TT from medical centres is affected by regulation and institutional ownership; 2) assessment of barriers to TT necessitates contextualisation and the consideration of local conditions at each medical centre (e.g., size, research funds, ownership and university affiliation).

Keywords: barriers; technology transfer; medical centres; contextualisation; embeddedness theory; patent applications; patents; hospitals; Israel; regulation; institutional ownership; size; research funding; university affiliation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2015.075824

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2015 Vol.13 No.3/4, pp.154 - 177

Accepted: 16 Jul 2015
Published online: 07 Apr 2016 *

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