Space technology transfer: a systematic literature review

In 2011, NASA reported that approximately 100 companies had used spin-off technologies. Some of the benefits of this use were more than 12,000 lives saved, more than 9,200 jobs created, and savings of more than $6.2 billion (Space Foundation, 2012). The U.S. space economy grew by 12% in 2011, reaching an estimated total of $289.77 billion. As in past years, the majority of this growth was a result of commercial success rather than increases in government spending (Space Foundation, 2012). The potential inherent in space technologies to be transferred and to generate new innovative processes has been evident since the founding of NASA. In 1960, NASA created an Office of Technical Information and Educational Programs to implement a technology dissemination strategy, and since then it has continued to promote transfer programs, supporting firms in their demands for technology and disseminating information through the annual publication “NASA Spinoffs” (Selly, 2008). Similarly, other countries and their space agencies also began to take an interest in the processes of space product transfer. Over the last 50 years, scholars and scientists have reported, and in some cases analyzed this phenomenon in major international journals. However, no one has ever collected and interpreted this body of publications. The primary objectives of this article are to systematically review the space technology transfer literature and to provide direction for fruitful future research. A systematic review of the literature follows an explicit, rigorous and transparent methodology (Fink, 2005). According to specific criteria of selection, we constructed a database of 40 articles and then we interpreted the database respecting the areas of major interest in the development of technological transfer processes, namely: actors, geographical context and industrial sectors, motivations, space technologies, paths, models and mechanisms, impact/effectiveness, determinants and barriers. The results contain a summary of findings from each area of interest of technology transfer (TT). The paper is organized as follows: firstly, we describe the methodology used for identifying and selecting the papers. Secondly, we review the papers along descriptive characteristics and six topics of interest. Thirdly, the conclusions include those that are referred to in the literature as "future researches”.