A novel technology transfer office typology based on lessons learnt from the UK: recommendations for developing countries

Developing countries are increasingly establishing technology transfer offices (TTOs) recognising that these can play a potentially significant role in facilitating the successful transfer of technologies and knowledge between universities and industry. However, many TTOs in developing countries operate inefficiently and seek to learn from developed world practices. Whilst research on the characteristics of TTOs and their performance is growing there is still much to understand even in developed nation TTOs. We contribute to this area by using novel primary data gathered from UK universities to create a typology of technology transfer offices (TTOs) based on the combination of their mission statement, governance structure and maturity. Using the conceptual Maturity Model of TTO efficiency developed by Secundo et al (2016), an online questionnaire was developed and sent to 116 universities in the UK. Eight of the
20 respondent universities were interviewed about their range and types of practices. We found correlations between the maturity level of the TTOs mission statements and their governance structures. We suggest this emerging typology may assist TTOs in developing countries to be more efficient by appropriately aligning their mission statement, governance structure and maturity.