ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to discussions about the processes and implications of technology transfer through analysis of the work of technology transfer professionals. The analysis relies on interviews with technology transfer professionals in Israeli universities, coupled with theory from the domains of knowledge brokering, boundary work, and the institutional work approach in new institutional theory. I argue that these professionals undertake two types of boundary work. The first is brokering work, in which they connect academic researchers with industrial partners and translate knowledge across boundaries. The second is maintenance work, a type of institutional work that involves policing and monitoring, to protect the university’s ownership of intellectual property and the normative boundaries of academic science. I reveal the strategies that professionals employ to manage conflicts of interest and of values as part of their ongoing work, and discuss the implications for technology transfer policy and the normative aspect of university-industry relations.

摘要

本文通过对技术转让专业人员的工作进行分析，有助于对技术转让的过程和含义进行讨论。该分析基于对以色列大学技术转让专业人员的访谈，以及来自知识中介，边界工作和新制度理论中的制度工作方法等领域的理论。我认为这些专业人员从事两种边界工作。首先是经纪工作，其中他们将学术研究人员与行业合作伙伴联系起来，并跨界翻译知识。第二是维护工作，这是一种涉及警务和监督的机构工作，旨在保护大学的知识产权所有权和学术科学的规范边界。