University technology transfer and entrepreneurship as drivers of regional development: evidence from Korea

ABSTRACT In recent years, research has focused on the role of universities as ‘entrepreneurial actors’ who transform academic knowledge and commercialise research in local economies. While there is empirical evidence to support the argument that technology transfer accelerates new venture formation, which in turn stimulates regional employment growth, there is little research on the structural influences of these three elements at the regional level. This study examines whether entrepreneurship induced endogenously from university technology transfer can predict entrepreneurship’s contribution to regional employment growth by applying the instrumental variables and two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) for panel-data models. Our results confirm that university technology transfer promotes entrepreneurship and stimulates regional employment growth. Furthermore, we find that the quality of technologies transferred is more important than the quantity. This study contributes to filling the gaps in knowledge about the impact of university technology transfer on regional development by adding a causal relationship of entrepreneurship endogenously induced from university technology transfer.