Capacity Building for University–Industry Linkages in Developing Countries

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the impact of academic capacity building on university–industry–linkages (UILs) and to identify a set of critical success factors to guide improvements of university–industry knowledge transfers in developing countries. Extensive empirical evidence from a unique case of academic institution building and efforts to improve UILs in the context of a developing country—the Thai Higher Education Development Project (HEDP)—is used. Since the Thai HEDP combines the enhancement of both core academic missions and UIL activities within newly founded centres, it provides an interesting case study to support the cross-fertilization of ideas and academic entrepreneurship. The article is organised as follows: (i) A generic overview of UILs in Thailand is presented to place the establishment and evolution of the centres into perspective; (ii) The quantitative relevance of UILs at the centres is measured and considered by looking at their sources of income generation; (iii) Approaches and best practices of the centres towards UILs are discussed with the help of qualitative analysis; (iv) The empirical results are used to identify critical success factors for UILs, and their potential for cross-fertilisation of academic tasks in developing countries.