The primary aim of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) is to enhance technology transfers, resulting in the commercialization of science. Technology transfer has typically been analyzed at the individual level of the core research staff or with the focus on the TTO as a whole, overlooking the fact that the university technology transfer is administered by intellectual property (IP) coordinators. This paper focuses on exposing a potentially crucial factor in technology transfer; the effects of cohorts based on imprinting. The imprinting theory implies that imprints are persistent and manifest themselves in the core activities of the IP coordinators' cohorts in the long term. We bring to light the effects of IP coordinators' cohorts on patenting and licensing, and test a conceptual model of inter-cohort variability. We analyze the patenting and licensing data of 18,393 patent cases and 845 licensed cases, handled by 63 IP coordinators. In combination with human resource data, we show that in the technology transfer process, IP coordinators’' cohorts matter. Using discriminant analysis, we demonstrate that some aspects of technology transfer activities are more typical for one cohort than the others. Variations between cohorts suggest that they are influenced by the prevailing practices inside the TTO at the time of hiring. Cohort patterns are also distinct in the two key technology transfer activities (patenting and licensing). Regression analysis shows that cohort effects remain resistant to erosion even when faced with subsequent changes as captured by organizational and individual time-period effects. Display omitted •Enriching the technology transfer debate by emphasizing the role of imprinting, focusing on IP coordinators at technology transfer offices.•Contributing to the imprinting theory by focusing on cohort effects manifestations as a function of cohort membership and observed activities.•A novel inter-cohort variability model shows differences between cohorts: success for patenting and social proximity for licensing.•Effects of cohorts are resistant to erosion indicating that individual and organizational period effects are layered upon them, indicating sedimentation.•Our results highlight the importance of recognizing the silent underpinnings such as cohorts for technology transfer activities.