Abstract
This paper identifies practices that can facilitate knowledge transfer in university–industry (U–I) research partnerships by systematically reviewing extant literature. We aim to contribute to the theoretical development in the field of academic engagement and propose that knowledge transfer provides a valuable perspective. We started our review with identifying barriers and facilitators of knowledge transfer. Extant literature identified knowledge differences and differences in goals resulting from different institutional cultures as important barriers to knowledge transfer. They result in ambiguity, problems with knowledge absorption and difficulties with the application of knowledge. Trust, communication, the use of intermediaries and experience are found as facilitators for knowledge transfer that help to resolve the identified barriers. Our analysis offers practical advice for the management of academic engagement. Finally, we identified questions for future research based on inconsistencies in extant research and open questions we encountered during our analysis.
Highlights
1.1 Knowledge transfer practices in U–I collaborationsKnowledge transfer between academia and industry is considered an important driver of innovation and economic growth as it eases the commercialization of new scientific knowledge within firms (Bercovitz and Feldmann 2006; Mowery and Nelson 2004)
This review aimed to explore the relevance of knowledge transfer as a concept for theory development regarding academic engagement and to give an overview of literature that addresses knowledge transfer in academic engagement
We found that research into knowledge transfer in academic engagement is dispersed
Summary
1.1 Knowledge transfer practices in U–I collaborationsKnowledge transfer between academia and industry is considered an important driver of innovation and economic growth as it eases the commercialization of new scientific knowledge within firms (Bercovitz and Feldmann 2006; Mowery and Nelson 2004). There are other ways for academics to ensure application of their knowledge these practices focus predominantly on knowledge exchange (Salter and Martin 2001; Alexander and Childe 2013). These forms of interaction have been referred to as academic engagement or academic partnership (Perkmann et al 2013). In this paper we focus on these kinds of academic engagement which we define as research partnerships based on “high relational involvement in situations where individuals and teams from academic and industrial contexts work together on specific projects and produce common outputs” This means that we will focus on research partnerships, collaborative research, contract research and consulting while collaborations with limited interaction or that require little or no new research are excluded
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