Abstract
Pricing is important to the functioning of markets for technology. A considerable body of research has studied how various factors contribute to determining prices, yet the effects of both technology providers’ and buyers’ prestige on prices remain underexplored. This study investigates how prestige affects pricing in university–firm technology transactions. We argue that prestige shapes prices by influencing both technology valuation and negotiations. Using transaction data on patented university technologies in Zhejiang Province in China during the period spanning 2017–2019, we examine the relationship between inventor team prestige and transaction prices. We also investigate how this relationship depends on organizational prestige, specifically that of a supplying university and a buying firm. We find a positive relationship between inventor team prestige and transaction prices. Furthermore, this relationship is positively moderated by university prestige, while it is negatively moderated by firm prestige. This study generates implications for universities as they manage technology transfer to firms.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102710 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-11 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Technovation |
| Volume | 123 |
| Early online date | 1 Feb 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Huijun Shen is grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72202214 ), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LQ22G030012 ) and the Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences (Grant No. 23NDJC097YB ). Can Huang is grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 71874152 and 71732008 ), the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences (Grant Nos. 21AZD010 and 22&ZD154 ).
Funding Information:
We include three independent variables in our analysis. The first is Inventor team prestige. Prior studies indicate that recognition, especially in the form of prizes, is an important mark of prestige ( Azoulay et al., 2014 ). Typically, a title such as Nobel Laureate can significantly change an individual’s prestige. Therefore, we use well-known grants in China’s academic evaluation system to construct an indicator of inventor team prestige. In China, winning important national grants is an important indicator of researchers’ prominence and prestige in academia. Moreover, many firms participate in competitions for national grants and are familiar with them. Thus, grants are generally an important source of information for external appraisers in both academia and industry as they form perceptions of an inventor team’s achievements, and thus prestige. Specifically, our criterion for assessing a single inventor is whether (s)he has won at least one grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). 4 4 Considering that an inventor team’s prestige reflects the aggregate prestige of all its members, we count the total number of members who have won grants from the NSFC as the value of Inventor team prestige. Moreover, for the purpose of a robustness check, we use an alternative criterion, namely whether an inventor has won at least one grant from the National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program), another influential research program in China’s evaluation system, to construct Inventor team prestige.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
Funding
Huijun Shen is grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72202214 ), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LQ22G030012 ) and the Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences (Grant No. 23NDJC097YB ). Can Huang is grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 71874152 and 71732008 ), the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences (Grant Nos. 21AZD010 and 22&ZD154 ). We include three independent variables in our analysis. The first is Inventor team prestige. Prior studies indicate that recognition, especially in the form of prizes, is an important mark of prestige ( Azoulay et al., 2014 ). Typically, a title such as Nobel Laureate can significantly change an individual’s prestige. Therefore, we use well-known grants in China’s academic evaluation system to construct an indicator of inventor team prestige. In China, winning important national grants is an important indicator of researchers’ prominence and prestige in academia. Moreover, many firms participate in competitions for national grants and are familiar with them. Thus, grants are generally an important source of information for external appraisers in both academia and industry as they form perceptions of an inventor team’s achievements, and thus prestige. Specifically, our criterion for assessing a single inventor is whether (s)he has won at least one grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). 4 4 Considering that an inventor team’s prestige reflects the aggregate prestige of all its members, we count the total number of members who have won grants from the NSFC as the value of Inventor team prestige. Moreover, for the purpose of a robustness check, we use an alternative criterion, namely whether an inventor has won at least one grant from the National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program), another influential research program in China’s evaluation system, to construct Inventor team prestige.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Zhejiang Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences | 23NDJC097YB, 71874152, 71732008 |
| National Natural Science Foundation of China | 72202214 |
| Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province | LQ22G030012 |
| National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences | 22, ZD154, 21AZD010 |
Keywords
- China
- Innovation
- Inventor teams
- Prestige
- Technology transaction prices
- University technology transfer