Social capital of academics and their engagement in technology and knowledge transfer

This paper aims to develop and empirically test a model which examines the relationships between academics' social capital and their engagement in technology and knowledge transfer via entrepreneurial and traditional activity. Social capital is assessed through individuals' orientation, desire, and willingness to work with others. The data gathered from academics at four different European universities are used to test the proposed relationships by performing structural equation modeling. Overall, our findings reveal that academics' social capital is significantly related to their engagement in technology and knowledge transfer. Being oriented to teamwork stimulates academics' desire to participate in interdisciplinary projects with industry and partially stimulates multidisciplinary research. Both interdisciplinary projects with industry and multidisciplinary research are positively related to industry interactions, which are significantly related to academics' further engagement in patenting, business activity, and scientific publishing.