Abstract

VALENTE, María Rosa  and  SOTO, Antonio. Modes for Technological Transfer in Linking University and Producing Sectors: Motivations and Obstacles. Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2007, vol.13, n.2, pp.290-302. ISSN 1315-9518.

In Venezuela, relationships between the university and productive sectors could be qualified as “weak”, occasional and short-term; where the convenient overrides the pertinent and necessary, resulting in the predominance of interim modes. For this reason, the objective of this research is to determine the modalities of technological transference carried out by the research centers assigned to the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Zulia and the productive sector; as well as the factors that both create obstacles and facilitate technology transfer among these actors. This paper, which is a descriptive, traverse, field investigation, is based on the information given by the selected unit head managers. Results reveal that the linking process among these actors corresponds to simple modes which have advanced only slightly toward superior, long-term phases. Among the outstanding factors blocking the process are: inadequate marketing, lack of multidisciplinary work, and physical and psychological distance; while all the structural, institutional and individual motivations were considered as facilitators for the connection. For that reason, it is necessary to take advantage of these facilitating factors of technology transfer and try to conquer the obstacles in order to strengthen cooperation between the academic and the productive sectors.

Keywords : Mode; technological transfer; linking; motivations; obstacles.