Title: Lean agile technology transfer approach

Authors: Stelian Brad; Anca Draghici

Addresses: Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Memorandumului 28, 400114 Cluj-Napoca, Romania ' Politehnica University of Timisoara, Piata Victoriei 2, 300006 Timisoara, Romania

Abstract: Despite many institutional efforts that have been run in the last decade to professionalise technology transfer offices (TTOs) and to polish the intellectual property rights route, the success rate of most universities to license inventions to economic players is relatively low. Comparing technology transfer (TT) perspectives revealed by the academic and business worlds, an extended TT model, called lean agile technology transfer (LATT), is proposed by this paper. The proposed approach is lean because of the value-added activities dedicated to the increase of TT effectiveness. It is agile because of the specific activities for handling inconsistency and lack of information. The paper ends with recommendations for universities to reengineer their TTOs towards better facing the challenges of the forthcoming business environment.

Keywords: lean technology transfer; agile technology transfer; innovation; university-industry collaboration; industrial cooperation; uncertain markets; technology readiness level; innovation process; intellectual property rights; IPR; value-added; inconsistency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSE.2016.077411

International Journal of Sustainable Economy, 2016 Vol.8 No.3, pp.224 - 236

Received: 15 Sep 2015
Accepted: 03 Feb 2016
Published online: 29 Jun 2016 *

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