Determinants of university–industry research collaborations in Taiwan: The case of the National Tsing Hua University

Abstract

This study utilized a two-stage approach, including secondary data analysis and the DEcision-MAking Trial and Evaluation Laboratory, to identify and explore the interrelationships of determinants for the performance of the university–industry research collaboration (UIRC) at the National Tsing Hua University, one of Taiwan’s elite universities. Research results provide a visualized framework to assess UIRC performance by showing that Taiwan is heavily driven by top-down leadership, as well as institutional incentives and policies. This study also indicates that UIRC performance is overwhelmingly focused on contract-based R&D collaboration, rather than technology licensing and transfer activities, demonstrating the significant role of public R&D funding and reflecting the industrial/social demand and the type of knowledge creation and diffusion in the catching-up countries such as Taiwan are divergent from those in leading countries, such as in the The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Policy and managerial implications for the evolving role of universities in latecomer countries are derived and discussed.