| This study focuses on the relationship between universities as inventors of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT's), and industrial firms as either commercializers or users of the technologies. It investigates the effect of company size on its incentives for and barriers to the transfer of AMT's from universities. It also examines other issues related to the AMT transfer process, such as methods of establishing contact, methods of knowledge transfer, criteria used to judge the success of the transfer, and role of intermediary organizations.;Interviews with fifteen companies indicate that incentives for transfer do not seem to vary with size, whereas some barriers to transfer do. Subjective data collected seem to better clarify the effect of size on companies' incentives and barriers than objective data. Results show that companies are more proactive than universities in establishing contacts. They usually approach universities directly without resorting to intermediary organizations. Results also indicate that written documents and face-to-face conversations are the most frequently used methods for transferring the knowledge to adopter companies. Technical success seems to be more important to many companies than commercial success.;An investigation of the preceding issues in a larger sample will give a more precise idea about the relationships examined. |
