Studies in Science of Science ›› 2026, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (4): 817-830.

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General-purpose Technologies and Technology Transfer in Universities: A Perspective on Knowledge Reorganization

  

  • Received:2025-02-25 Revised:2025-09-25 Online:2026-04-15 Published:2026-04-15

高校技术通用性与成果转化:知识重组视角

岑杰,冯俊菁,徐晶,付凤   

  1. 浙江工商大学
  • 通讯作者: 徐晶
  • 基金资助:
    企业通用新兴技术创新机理:双元转换视角下的"研发节奏-知识空间"耦合效应及其演进研究

Abstract: General-purpose technologies and technology transfer in universities is a crucial way to overcome the bottleneck of being "stuck" by core technologies and to address the disconnection between innovation chain and industrial chain. Technology transfer in universities is not only a bridge that connect scientific research and production, but also a core driving force to promote high-quality development. However, in this process, a series of challenges occur, including technology islands, lack of market orientation and capital. To search for solutions, relevant studies usually focus on the process of technology transfer, demonstrating that it is affected by internal and external factors, such as the capabilities of R&D practices, policy regulation, academic entrepreneurship activities, etc. These studies also investigate the channels to realize technology transfer, including patent licensing, the establishment of spin-of and U-I innovation collaboration. Unfortunately, these studies often neglect the inherent nature of technological emergence in universities: 1) the technical characteristics of the endogenous emergence of universities; 2) the internal mechanism of how universities utilize knowledge reorganization via general-purpose technologies to realize efficient technology transfer. To fill above research gaps and enrich current studies on university technology transfer, this paper investigates how universities reorganize knowledge through general-purpose technologies, and the intrinsic mechanisms enabling them to bridge both the "subject" and "domain" gaps in technology transfer from knowledge reorganization perspective. To empirically verifies above hypotheses, we obtain information of 72,944 patents from 284 Chinese universities from IncoPat database, then using the Logit model to perform estimation. We find that: (1) Different university general-purpose technologies vary in their transfer—higher applied generality of university technologies increases the likelihood of technology transfer, while higher basic generality decreases this likelihood. (2) Government subsidies enhance the relationship between applied generality of university technologies and technology transfer but weaken the relationship between basic generality and technology transfer. (3) The maturity of knowledge enhances the relationship between applied generality of university technology and technology transfer, without significant moderating effect on the relationship between basic generality and technology transfer. This study decomposes a unique attribute (generality) of university technology from an endogenous perspective, thereby enriching the research on the relationship between general-purpose technology and technology transfer, so that providing insights for universities to achieve "double-leap". Our contributions are twofold: (1) rather than macro and exogenous theoretical perspectives. we investigate technology transfer from a micro perspective of "general-purpose technology", which enriches the research on the micro mechanism of the technology transfer in universities. (2) we introduce the knowledge reorganization theory to explore internal mechanism of "subject" and "domain" double gap in university technology transfer, so that effectively promoted the new understanding of the technology transfer in universities. (3) we empirically examine the moderating role of government subsidies and knowledge maturity, which reveals the influencing mechanism of external factors on universities’ technology transfer and enriches the studies on innovation policy and knowledge management. This study provides practical implications as well. First, universities should build an interdisciplinary research platform to deeply integrate fundamental theories and practical knowledge, bridge social needs and technological frontiers, and improve the efficiency and quality of knowledge reorganization. Second, based on effective knowledge reorganization, universities should actively seek and deepen tripartite collaboration (university-industry-government) to accelerate their technology output and transfer. Third, government should facilitate university-industry cooperation by building a platform for information exchange and resource sharing, which accelerates technology transfer; meanwhile, policy instruments could be used to encourage and support innovative and practical research in universities, realizing the self-reliance on science and technology development.

摘要: 高校技术及其成果转化是突破关键核心技术被“卡脖子”、创新链产业链“两张皮”困境的重要方式。针对现有高校成果转化研究较多围绕宏观的和外生的视角展开、忽视了高校内生性涌现出的技术特性——通用性的不足,文章研究高校如何通过技术通用性进行知识重组、并实现科技成果转化中“主体”和“领域”双鸿沟跨越的内在机理,采用284家中国高校72944条专利数据进行实证研究,发现:(1)不同的高校技术通用性对于成果转化的影响不同——高校技术的应用通用性越高,实现科技成果转化的可能性越高;高校技术的基础通用性越高,实现科技成果转化的可能性越低。(2)政府补贴正向调节高校技术应用通用性与科技成果转化之间的关系,负向调节高校技术基础通用性与科技成果转化间的关系;(3)知识成熟度正向调节高校技术应用通用性与科技成果转化之间的关系,对高校技术基础通用性与科技成果转化间关系无显著调节作用。文章的研究从“内生性”视角解构了高校技术的特殊属性——通用性,丰富了通用技术与科技成果转化间的关系研究,也为高校技术实现“双跨越”、助力破解创新链产业链“两张皮”困境提供了新的思路。

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