Knowledge and technology transfer in German universities: An exploratory study leveraging information from university websites

Despite the multidimensionality of knowledge and technology transfer (KTT), existing quantitative evaluations predominantly focus on a limited range of channels, often resulting from the availability of data rather than theoretical considerations. To address this gap, we leverage unstructured data from university websites to develop comprehensive indicators that capture universities’ KTT activities more holistically. Applying large-language-transformers to scraped websites of German universities, we identify five distinct KTT dimensions: engagement in collaborative research consortia with industry, technical consulting activities, start-up activities, the development of regional tech transfer hubs, as well as technology transfer offices. Based on exploratory regression analyses, we find that the intensity of the type of KTT activities varies with the regional environment as well as university characteristics. Moreover, our regressions unveil a synergistic relationship between KTT and basic research, where this finding again seems to depend strongly on the type of KTT activity. • Five distinct types of university KTT activities were identified via topic modeling • Collaborative consortia are positively associated with research quality and output • KTT diversity correlates with stronger academic performance in basic research • Regional factors show weak but activity-specific links to KTT intensity • Web-scraped indicators enable scalable analysis of universities’ third mission