The evolution of university–industry–government relationships during transition

Abstract

This paper deals with the transformation of relationships between business and universities, as reflected in government programmes and in the innovation activities of firms, in a transition economy, Hungary. The paper examines how government facilitates partnership between university and industry and how companies relate to universities. Its empirical basis is four pilot innovation surveys, together with research and development statistics. Employing innovation surveys in an investigation of university-business collaboration allows us to identify how strong a factor is the influence of universities in a given system. The new government programmes tend to encourage closer links between public sector research and private sector expectations. Casual observations have shown that an innovation network can be created and exist if business firms are hungry for innovation. Hungarian business which is barely innovative or which is mainly involved in moderate innovation is still able to create limited research tasks—mainly in experimental development and design, in trials and in the tooling-up process. Government programmes are moving in the right direction when they promote interaction in a national system of innovation. However, such interaction is still limited in the move towards a knowledge- or learning-based economy.