Indicators of higher-education institutes and public-research organizations technology transfer activities: insights from France.

The issue of technology transfer (TT) activities from science to the economy is attracting more and more attention, becoming one of the main foci of the fast growing field of economics of science. As often when a new field of research is emerging, the issue of the relevance of the related indicators is of key importance. This paper uses the study of TT activities in the French public-research system, conducted by BETA in 2005–2006 to analyze some aspects of this issue. After presenting the main results of the study a more global discussion focuses on the interactions between the institutional and organization context of TT activities, the design of the indicators, the methodological choices related to data collection, and the implicit or explicit goals pursued when using TT indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]