A Human-Centered Framework for Investigating Organizational Phenomena: Development and Application to Examining the Potential of Technology Maturation Initiatives to Facilitate Technology Transfer from Universities and Federal Laboratories

The incidence of technologies created with the support of federal funding at universities and federal laboratories that are transferred to the private sector is nowhere close to its potential. The literature suggests that technology maturity level can possibly be a useful lever to increase the incidence of technology transfer. Orthodox approaches to technology transfer research have significant limitations that negatively impact their usefulness for investigating this issue. This paper presents a theoretical framework to address this gap and the results of a study that applied this framework in combination with Bayesian analysis to understand whether technology maturity level holds promise as a lever that practitioners and policymakers can use to substantially increase the incidence and societal benefits of technology transfer from universities and federal laboratories. The results of the study indicate that there is about a 55% probability that insufficient maturity is the primary reason that private sector organizations do not pursue 5% or more of available university and federal laboratory technologies. Thus, implementing public policies, programs, and initiatives to further mature technologies created at universities and federal laboratories that private sector firms would otherwise eschew because of insufficient maturity is likely to increase the overall incidence of technology transfer slightly but even a slight increase could produce substantial societal benefits. The potential economic benefits of commercializing such technologies are roughly 1.7 to 2.4 times greater than strategically redistributing the research funding used to create them to induce consumption and spur economic activity.