Antecedents of university entry into association for technology transfer political action

Abstract Organizations increasingly rely on nonmarket, political action to advance their interests, either individually or collectively. In this article, we contribute to the theory by examining the antecedents of an organization’s decision to join an association, a standard vehicle for collective political action. We leverage panel data from 83 universities in England and Scotland covering the period from 1994 to 2008. Drawing from the resource-based view, we empirically show that universities with ample tangible and intangible resources are the ones that join Knowledge Exchange UK, the British technology transfer association. Specifically, universities are more likely to enter the association if they possess financial slack, reputation, and experience. Our findings suggest that an organization’s decision to join an association is driven not only by access to shared material benefits but also by power and political ambition. We discuss the managerial and theoretical implications of our study and propose new research avenues in the fields of technology transfer, association entry, and corporate political action.