Student Centrality in University–Industry Interactions

Abstract

This paper proposes a model of interactions between university scientists and the private sector in which graduate students feature as important enablers. This conceptualization proposes that students represent a dimension of scientists' research capacity which improves their ability to identify and act on industry-related opportunities, and which also makes them more feasible research partners from the standpoint of industry. The results show that university scientists' student-related behaviour, such as grant support of students and research collaboration with them, and their student-related attitudes, such as their mentoring orientation, positively affect both the probability that scientists will engage in interaction with industry and the intensity of that interaction. The implications for policy and theory are discussed.