Antecedents of university entry into association for technology transfer political action

Organizations increasingly rely on non-market, political action to advance their interests, either individually or collectively. In this paper, we contribute to 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 it is universities with ample tangible and intangible resources that join Knowledge Exchange UK, the British technology transfer association. Specifically, universities are more likely to enter the association if they possesses financial slack, reputation and experience. Our findings suggest that an organization’s decision to join an association is driven not merely by access to shared material benefits but 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.