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Best Practices in Knowledge Transfer: Insights from Top Universities

Author

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  • Annamaria Demarinis Loiotile

    (Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy
    Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e dell’Informazione, Politecnico di Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Francesco De Nicolò

    (Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy
    Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e dell’Informazione, Politecnico di Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Adriana Agrimi

    (Direzione Ricerca, Terza Missione e Internazionalizzazione, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70121 Bari, Italy)

  • Loredana Bellantuono

    (Dipartimento di Biomedicina Traslazionale e Neuroscienze (DiBraiN), Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70124 Bari, Italy
    Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Marianna La Rocca

    (Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy
    Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 2025 Zonal Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA)

  • Alfonso Monaco

    (Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy
    Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Ester Pantaleo

    (Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy)

  • Sabina Tangaro

    (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy
    Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy)

  • Nicola Amoroso

    (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy
    Dipartimento di Farmacia-Scienze del Farmaco, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Roberto Bellotti

    (Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, 70126 Bari, Italy
    Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

Abstract

The impact of knowledge transfer induced by universities on economy, society, and culture is widely acknowledged; nevertheless, this aspect is often neglected by university rankings. Here, we considered three of the most popular global university rankings and specific knowledge transfer indicators by U-multirank, a European ranking system launched by the European Commission, in order to answer to the following research question: how do the world top universities, evaluated according to global university rankings, perform from a knowledge transfer point of view? To this aim, the top universities have been compared with the others through the calculation of a Global Performance Indicator in Knowledge Transfer (GPI KT), a hierarchical clustering, and an outlier analysis. The results show that the universities best rated by global rankings do not always perform as well from knowledge transfer point of view. By combining the obtained results, it is possible to state that only 5 universities (Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Harvard, CALTEC), among the top in the world, exhibit a high-level performance in knowledge transfer activities. For a better understanding of the success factors and best practices in knowledge transfer, a brief description of the 5 cited universities, in terms of organization of technology transfer service, relationship with business, entrepreneurship programs, and, more generally, third mission activities, is provided. A joint reading of the results suggests that the most popular global university rankings probably fail to effectively photograph third mission activities because they can manifest in a variety of forms, due to the intrinsic and intangible nature of third mission variables, which are difficult to quantify with simple and few indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • Annamaria Demarinis Loiotile & Francesco De Nicolò & Adriana Agrimi & Loredana Bellantuono & Marianna La Rocca & Alfonso Monaco & Ester Pantaleo & Sabina Tangaro & Nicola Amoroso & Roberto Bellotti, 2022. "Best Practices in Knowledge Transfer: Insights from Top Universities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-23, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15427-:d:978444
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    References listed on IDEAS

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