Abstract
International research collaborations are widespread, but few have studied those that reach the scale and scope of what we call international university research ventures (IURVs). In an IURV, a university sets up a formal and organizationally consolidated research relationship in a foreign country. This paper puts forward an institutionalization framework to explain the development of IURVs with different forms. Five case studies are presented of IURVs in the countries with the largest number of IURVs involving US universities: China and Singapore. The five cases are examined relative to the elements of the institutionalization framework: nominal, leadership, administrative support, multi-year funding, research targets, formal researcher-to-researcher exchange, visibility, evaluation, and supporting characteristics. The results show that the emergence of IURVs depends on the specific connections between the role of government and the availability of resources with the realization of mutual benefits, leading to different patterns of institutionalization. This variation is in part a function of the degree of involvement of the government agency or department providing the funding for the IURV, which influences retention of the knowledge produced by the IURV in the region through institutionalized mechanisms as well as the development of scientific and technical human capital in the host country. Institutionalization is not a benefit without limits; nevertheless, an institutionalized structure may be necessary if ambitious research-driven goals are to be achieved.
Highlights
The involvement of universities in countries other than their home location is a growing trend (Wildavsky, 2010; Lane, 2011; Kosmützky and Krücken, 2014; University of Oxford, 2015)
Each model represents one of the international partnerships negotiated between a foreign government and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): the bilateral relationship involved the United Kingdom with the University of Cambridge and MIT; the networked model is with seven universities and other research institutes in Portugal; institutionbuilding is with Abu Dhabi; and functional expansion is with Singapore
Within this diversity of internationalized university arrangements, we focus on one type of initiative: the international university research venture (IURV) in which universities formally set up a research relationship in a foreign country
Summary
The involvement of universities in countries other than their home location is a growing trend (Wildavsky, 2010; Lane, 2011; Kosmützky and Krücken, 2014; University of Oxford, 2015). Each model represents one of the international partnerships negotiated between a foreign government and MIT: the bilateral relationship involved the United Kingdom with the University of Cambridge and MIT; the networked model is with seven universities and other research institutes in Portugal; institutionbuilding is with Abu Dhabi; and functional expansion is with Singapore Within this diversity of internationalized university arrangements, we focus on one type of initiative: the international university research venture (IURV) in which universities formally set up a research relationship in a foreign country (see Li et al, 2016; Shapira et al, 2016). The concluding section discusses our findings on the characteristics and trajectories of IURV institutionalization, and reflects on the implications for research management, university internationalization, and policy
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