Towards the assessment of technology transfer capabilities: An action research-enhanced HDM model

Scholars widely recognize and accept technology transfer as an integral part of research and development management, and the topic has been subject to research for more than 40 years. Nonetheless, there are still several gaps in the body of knowledge, and also numerous ways in which practitioners fall short of understanding and properly developing technology transfer capabilities. The objective of this study was to create a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to evaluate an organization's technology transfer capabilities, ultimately leading organizations to improve it. A novel methodological approach was used – action research and hierarchical decision modeling – and the resulting model, an action research-enhanced HDM model, was validated by a pool of 39 subject matter experts coming from different backgrounds and having different skill sets. This study contributes to the advancement of the bodies of knowledge of technology transfer, hierarchical decision modeling, and action research, while also taking the first steps towards building a decision model to bridge the gap between theory and practice and help practitioners in measuring and improving their technology transfer capabilities.