Abstract:

The concept of Supply Chain (SC), defined as a set of organizations directly involved in the upstream and downstream flow of products, services, finances, and/or information from a source to a customer, was conceived as a result of the globalization of the economy.

Innovation is not just “invention” or “R&D” but rather a set of processes as a whole should be thought of as a system. It is strongly affected by the social system, including different actors, networks, and institutions. Technological innovation can provide a competitive innovation, but it is important to manage the risk associated with the investment in technology. Recently, the mutual relationship between the university and industry through the exchange of knwoledge has become a global trend.

Technology transfer is a key function or process of the global innovation systems. There is a wide variety of activities through which academics transfer their new knowledge. Some of these activities are more formal than others. Many prior studies have concentrated on more formal activities based on intelectual property rights as the main outcomes of universities such as patenting, licensing and the formation of spin-offs.

After a systematic literature review, we outline an analytical framework that uses global chains as the mechanism for bridging global and national innovation systems. The merit of global chains is that they emphasize inter-firm and intra-organization interactions and networks along the production process of a given product. These are often neglected by innovation systems. But these interactions allow us to understand better the role of informal university technology transfer along global value chain and its risks.

Establishing effective inter-organizational relationship is a daunting process. Each stakeholder has its own values, norms, principles and beliefs, where the incompatibility among institutional collaborators can create disagreements and conflicts. University Transfer Office operate in a pluralistic context, characterized by competing strategic demands and potentially divergent stakeholder goals. Universities are in a current state of transition, whereby they are expected to develop a wide range of relationships with stakeholder in order to enhance regional innovation system in global supply chains. Formal and Informal collaborations provide space for new practices around the core competences of knowledge transfer office.

One concluded remark is that there is a need for an increased focus and further research on informal technology transfer. Firms can benefit from the interactions with academics when managing global supply chains. But the upgrading efforts of firms, however, is conditioned on the complexity of knowledge, codifiability of technology, the accessibility of technologies, and the capability levels of firms. A number of risks were identified: market failure , risk of operational and process management, conflicts with suppliers, risk of losing IP ownership, risk of losing customers confidence in the company, risk of design and production misalingenment and lack of proactive engagement with suppliers had exposing the products to cost and time risk factors. For effective technology transfer, it is needed effective communication and risk management across suppliers and partners. Informal University Technology Transfer can help with this challenge.

Keywords:

Technology Transfer, Supply Chain, Risk Management.