Exclusive licensing of university technology: The effects of university prestige, technology transfer offices, and academy-industry collaboration
研究大学声望如何影响技术许可的排他性选择，发现两者呈倒U型关系，且技术转移办公室经验和前期合作起调节作用，对大学技术许可管理有启示。
Exclusivity is a key concern when designing a licensing contract, yet the organizational factors that influence the exclusive provision of university licenses remain underexplored. This study provides a deeper understanding of this question by developing a balanced framework that considers both licensors (universities) and licensees (companies) in licensing deals. Furthermore, we posit that university prestige affects both a university's ability to conduct non-exclusive licensing and a firm's incentive to obtain an exclusive license, thereby shaping their joint willingness to license (non-)exclusively. We also examine how technology transfer office (TTO) experience and prior collaboration between a university and a firm moderate this relationship. To test the hypotheses, we use a dataset consisting of 6653 licensed patents owned by 117 representative Chinese universities. We find that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between university prestige and the likelihood that two parties choose exclusive licensing. Moreover, the moderating effect of TTO experience is partially supported while that of prior collaboration is fully supported. Our findings generate important implications for the relative social impacts of exclusive and non-exclusive licensing of technology inventions as well as the management of university licensing.