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ST-06University Patenting and Licensing Activities in China: The Role of TTOs andTheir Affiliated UniversitiesKai Rao, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, ItalyIn order to maintain a high speed and sustainable economic development, the potential that technology and innovation havefrom R&D activities to China’s future economic prosperity can not be underestimated. One of the major technologies sources isChinese universities. Meanwhile, theoretical and empirical works in innovation management point out the values of setting upand maintaining good science-industry-government relations [1-2]. As a leader of relationship between industry and government,university can obtain pecuniary gains for itself and external benefits for the regional development by successful creation andcommercialization of IP, although the process is complex and dynamic.To facilitate technology transfer (TT) process, setting up TTOs has become popular in developed countries [3]. In the case ofChina, Ministry of Education (MOE) has selected six high research quality Chinese universities in every major region of Chinato invest in the structure of TTO and their staff in 2001. It is the first time to formalize national TT agencies in Chinese universitiesand official advocate specialization of TT activities. Licensing activities has traditionally been the most popular mode of universitytechnology transfer (UTT) [4], and TTOs in developed countries have been found to promote valorization of research results [3].But patenting-licensing activities in Chinese universities are little known [5]. Only some descriptive researches on ChineseTTOs have been conducted without empirical study [6-7]. This paper aims at investigating whether the newborn promising TTOsand their affiliated universities play a significant role on the universities patenting-licensing activities in an empirical approach.More specifically, in this study, the number of applied patents, licensed patents and licensing revenues accrued have beenanalyzed with the factors of TTOs existence, TTOs staff number and universities orientation.As for the data on TTOs and licensing performances, the statistics evidences are collected in a national survey with the help ofMOE. It is the most updated, complete and reliable database on the related issue. Questionnaires have been sent to 60selected universities, distributed in 23 relatively developed provinces out of 31 in China. 29 Research-Oriented Universities(ROUs) out of 39 and 31 Research & Teaching Universities (R&TUs) out of 73 have been investigated. Concerning the patentingactivities data, it can be easily obtained by accessing to the Database of National Bureau of Statistics of China (2009) [8].With a first view of the data, it can be found that quite a few universities still not have special TTOs. But all universitiesdemonstrate the dynamic domestic patenting activities in 2008.Only a few international patents represent the lack of internationalstrategy. Mostly universities are found to be at the beginning stage because of limited number of licensed patents and accruedroyalties. Then, data analysis shows that universities with TTOs perform obviously better than universities without TTOs on eachindicator of patenting activities, which includes the number of patent application, patent granted and active patents. It alsoreveals that universities with more than 3 people participating TT perform better than universities with less than 3 TT people. Thephenomenon points to the importance of independent TT agency and TT staff to improve the patenting performances. But thediminishing marginal productivity of TTO staff number could also be observed. Specialization of TT activities also plays asignificant role in commercial licenses. The link between TTOs (existence and staff number) and licenses activities (the numberof licenses and revenues) is more obvious than patenting activities, which reflects the more significant role of TTO. The universitiesorientation could serve as another factor. On average, ROUs perform far better than the R&TUs on each indicator of bothpatenting and licensing activities. But some R&TUs could also compete with ROUs on patenting-licensing activities.This paper makes two contributions to the flourishing literature on UTT. First, it is the first empirical evidence on the Chineseuniversities licensing activities based on a comprehensive dataset complied. Second, whether or not the TTOs and universitiesplay a role on universities patenting-licensing activities in China are identified.Since higher quality research does not necessarily result in better TT performance, it is neither possible nor necessary for eachuniversity to become ROU because quick responding to the production process problems in many cases may also be veryimportant in attracting external funds. Further, having developed a deep knowledge of both university research and industrialinnovation, TTOs play an important role in efficient TT. It is urging for universities to build up a specialized TT agency immediatelyin order to combine understanding the local technology market with strengthens of the university research. Furthermore, beingan intermediate bridge, TTO staffs are supposed to act as the interface between universities and industries in general. Besides,the study also sheds light on the diminishing marginal productivity of TTO staff number. Performance pay could provoke TTOstaff to be eager to raise external funds through activities.Madrid, October 20, 21 & 22 - 2010277