Dialogue of the deaf: the disconnect between the research mandarins and business innovators

Abstract

This paper explores the fundamental limitations of the two-step technology transfer mindset by examining three major examples of its failed application. The first example is the notorious disconnect between university research and business performance. The second evaluates the flawed national campaigns in a number of Asia Pacific countries to promote technopreneurship and the third examines the unsuccessful attempt to establish a major aircraft factory in Indonesia as part of a rapid industrialisation strategy. Drawing upon this analysis, and the successful examples of J&J, Dell and Google, the paper proposes a new strategic management paradigm, which emphasises the critical role of innovative, entrepreneurial leadership in designing business models, creating resource capabilities and converting these capabilities into new sources of customer-centred added value. The implications of this paradigm for organisational design, and especially for university research management and structures, are then outlined and depicted in an ideal model labeled Interactive Network of Value Adding Core Competencies (INOVACC).