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2022 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

8. Public Research Organizations and Technology Transfer: Flexibility, Spatial Organization and Specialization of Research Units

Authors : Ugo Finardi, Isabella Bianco, Secondo Rolfo

Published in: University-Industry Knowledge Interactions

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The aim of the present work is to understand whether the institutional dynamics of Public Research Organizations (in particular, the flexible structure of research units and their physical proximity to firms, as well as their research specialization) have a positive impact on Technology Transfer, helping to create and maintain collaborations with firms. The main subject of the research are large PROs, i.e., research bodies characterized by a wide coverage of scientific fields and by the presence of a geographically distributed research network. In order to address our research question, the paper exploits the results of a multiple case study analysis performed on the Institutes of the CNR, the National Research Council of Italy. The results show the positive impact on technology transfer of the internal organization and flexible structure of large PROs, as well as the positive externalities of research units localization across different proximity dimensions. The conclusions of our work offer policy suggestions and cues for future research.

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previous chapter The Relationship between University Management Practices and the Growth of Academic Spin-Offs

next chapter Every Woman Is a Vessel: An Exploratory Study on Gender and Academic Entrepreneurship in a Nascent Technology Transfer System

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Among the large number of Italian (small) PROs, we cite here, as examples, the “Anton Dohrn” Zoological Station, the Italian Institute for Germanic Studies and the “Enrico Fermi” Historical Museum of Physics.

Though the concept of proximity has been used by economists since the 19th century, the multidimensional approach was developed by the French economic geographers (see Gilly & Torre, 2000; Pecqueur & Zimmermann, 2004).

As mentioned above, although the CNR is Italy’s largest PRO and the only PRO active in all research fields, it is not the only non-university PRO in the country.

Starting from the end of 2018, almost 1800 personnel, formerly hired with short term contracts and as post-docs, have become tenured thanks to specific legislation. The success of this process (still continuing to date for the remaining unstable workers, known as “precari”) is mainly due to the action of a spontaneous internal movement of employees, the “Precari Uniti CNR”.

The bibliometric exercise was performed on Scopus® (https://www.scopus.com, link visited in June 2019). The names of the researchers were selected using the “Author” search mask.

Results are not presented explicitly for sake of anonymity.

The information was retrieved via CNR and Institutes websites.

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Title: Public Research Organizations and Technology Transfer: Flexibility, Spatial Organization and Specialization of Research Units
Authors: Ugo Finardi
Isabella Bianco
Secondo Rolfo
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: University-Industry Knowledge Interactions
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-84668-8

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-84669-5

Copyright Year: 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84669-5_8

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