Prestige and technology-transaction prices: Evidence from patent-selling by Chinese universities

Pricing is important to the functioning of markets for technology. A considerable body of research has studied how various factors contribute to determining prices, yet the effects of both technology providers’ and buyers’ prestige on prices remain underexplored. This study investigates how prestige affects pricing in university–firm technology transactions. We argue that prestige shapes prices by influencing both technology valuation and negotiations. Using transaction data on patented university technologies in Zhejiang Province in China during the period spanning 2017–2019, we examine the relationship between inventor team prestige and transaction prices. We also investigate how this relationship depends on organizational prestige, specifically that of a supplying university and a buying firm. We find a positive relationship between inventor team prestige and transaction prices. Furthermore, this relationship is positively moderated by university prestige, while it is negatively moderated by firm prestige. This study generates implications for universities as they manage technology transfer to firms.