Enterpreneurial Incentives, Obstacles, and Management in University-Business Co-Operation

Abstract

The study in this chapter aimed to explore the perception of university managers and academics towards incentives and obstacles of university-business co-operation. For this purpose, case studies were conducted in a public and a private university in Indonesia. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with university managers: University Vice President and the Head of Research and Community Service Office; and with academics at the department of electrical engineering and computer science. The results suggest that both organizational actors at both universities share a common perception that industrial funding; organizational and individual reputation; trust from industries and applied research are the incentives in the creation of university-business co-operation; whilst bureaucracy, industrial commitment, different in vision and orientation, teaching obligation and basic research have been considered as the obstacles. This study proposes a managerial implication. University managers should ‘recognize' the ‘skills' of individual academics in business before engaging them in university-business co-operation. Furthermore, individual academics should able to manage the different vision and orientation with the business world.