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Perspectives of University-Industry Technology Transfer in African Emerging Economies: Evaluating the Nigerian Scenario via a Data Envelopment Approach

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  • Oluwaseun Fadeyi

    (Department of Geology, Faculty of Geography and Geoscience, University of Trier, Universitätsring 15, 54296 Trier, Germany)

  • Petra Maresova

    (Department of Economy, Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Rokitanskeho 62, 50003 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic)

  • Ruzena Stemberkova

    (Department of Economy, Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Rokitanskeho 62, 50003 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic)

  • Micheal Afolayan

    (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Science, Anchor University, Ayobo, 100278 Lagos, Nigeria)

  • Funminiyi Adeoye

    (Department of Management, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, 400024 Enugu State, Nigeria)

Abstract

All of Africa’s emerging economies are faced with developmental challenges, which can be partly ameliorated using effective University–Industry technology transfer. While technology transfer remains at the infant stage, sparsely documented, and with no complex ongoing processes in many African societies, Universities in Africa are making efforts in University–Industry collaborations aimed at bringing significant improvements to the continent in a bid to drive national innovation and regional economic development. In this paper, we attempt to evaluate the progress made so far by Nigerian Universities in technological innovation transfer, in order to suggest ways for possible future progress. To do this, crucial technology transfer resource factors (inputs), namely, the number of linkage projects funded by the “African Research Council” (ARC), consortium membership of the University’s technology transfer office, and the number of doctoral staff at the University’s technology transfer office, were checked against a set of performance measures (number of executed licenses, amount of licensing royalty income, number of spin-offs created, and the number of spin-offs created with university equity), using data envelopment analysis and multiple regression, respectively. Results suggest that Universities that possess better resource factors reported higher outputs on most of the performance indicators applied. In addition, it was observed that Universities with greater ability to effectively transfer knowledge had higher technology commercialization performance and financial sustainability. The implication of these results is that Universities in Africa need to develop in line with the technology transfer resource (input) factors suggested within this study, as this is the way to go for better performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Oluwaseun Fadeyi & Petra Maresova & Ruzena Stemberkova & Micheal Afolayan & Funminiyi Adeoye, 2019. "Perspectives of University-Industry Technology Transfer in African Emerging Economies: Evaluating the Nigerian Scenario via a Data Envelopment Approach," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-20, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:8:y:2019:i:10:p:286-:d:275991
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    References listed on IDEAS

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