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The evolution of university technology transfer research: a text mining approach

James A. Cunningham, Prof. Dr. Matthias Menter, Felix Starke

Over the last few decades, a substantive body of research has been created that focuses on university technology transfer (UTT), resulting in a rich and complex literature. The purpose of this paper, using a text mining approach, is to identify underlying key topics that have shaped this field of research and to determine key emerging themes. Using computational linguistic techniques, we systematically examine 1,944 papers published between 1981 and 2022. Based on the identification of 20 distinct topics, we analyze the popularity of these topics over time. Our findings reveal that UTT capacities are widely discussed, especially themes related to processes, enablers, and the third mission. Moreover, topics such as spin-offs and metrics are gaining ground in the UTT literature. However, topics related to the UTT context, including the role of institutions and transfer units, are losing research momentum, as do themes around legislation and commercialization. Our paper defines thematic clusters, posits a framework to consolidate UTT research, and suggests promising future avenues of research.

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