Understanding the drivers of patent performance of University Science Parks in Turkey

University science parks have been a continued source of interest for scholars and policy makers due to their potential to aid innovation and consequently regional development. Research has sought to explore the benefits of university science parks however, has produced inconsistent findings. Scholars suggest the need to look beyond internal factors such as the management, resources (human and financial), support mechanisms and business models, to consider the impact of external factors which may constrain or enhance the performance of university science parks. This research explores the factors which impact Turkish university science parks’ patent performance. In particular, we focus on regional external factors such as how connections to triple helix actors, university type and how government supported technology transfer offices may influence patent performance within Turkish university science parks. The findings identify that the patent performance of Turkish university science parks increases when the science park is associated with research-oriented universities, providing all other elements are held constant. Mature, government funded technology transfer offices (TTOs) were also found to play a key role in increasing the number of patent applications. However, these effects change when considering the influence of having triple helix actor shareholders. The simultaneous existence of triple helix actor shareholders and research-oriented universities reduces the patenting performance of the university science park, when compared to research intensive universities without triple helix actor shareholders. Our findings provide novel contributions to university science parks in an underexplored context of Turkey and questions the value of patents as indicators of performance within Turkish university science parks.