Abstract
This study builds on the economics and organization literatures to explore whether and how institutions and organizational structure complement or substitute each other to create specific spaces of alignment where specific individual actors’ motivations co-exist. Focusing on university-industry collaborations, the study examines whether and how different axes of alignment of university and industry motivations are integrated in projects with specific technological objectives and organizational structures, benefitting from the presence of specific institutions designed to facilitate collaboration. Empirically, the study relies on in-depth data on 30 university-industry collaborations in the Netherlands, and provides preliminary evidence that the technological objective and organizational structure of collaboration are malleable variables allowing the integration of both partners’ objectives and expectations. Different institutional incentives for university-industry collaboration favor specific axes of alignment of motivations and certain types of collaborative projects’ design. Hence, our exploratory results suggest that specific organizational and technological structures tend to prevail in the presence of specific institutions.
Highlights
It is well established in the literature that institutions (Bloom and van Reenen, 2007, Bloom and Van Reenen 2010; Lam 2011), as well as organizational structures (Birkinshaw et al 2002; Fang et al 2010), by targeting different individual motivations, create incentives that play a role in economic decision-making about innovation and different types of knowledge activities
There is abundant evidence showing that specific behaviors, knowledge specializations, and outcomes are prevalent in specific institutional set ups (Nelson 1993; Bloom and Van Reenen 2010), and among groups and organizations with specific organizational structures (Argyres and Silverman 2004; Cassiman et al 2010; Lazaric and Raybaut 2014; Gambardella et al 2015)
We underline that our collaborative projects were selected on the basis of knowledge development and eventual transfer, not on the basis of the participating firm having recognized the value of the knowledge and having decided to use and commercialize it. 1 We focus on projects that have been concluded in order to collect information on the project’s organizational structure from origin to conclusion including achieved outcomes
Summary
It is well established in the literature that institutions (Bloom and van Reenen, 2007, Bloom and Van Reenen 2010; Lam 2011), as well as organizational structures (Birkinshaw et al 2002; Fang et al 2010), by targeting different individual motivations, create incentives that play a role in economic decision-making about innovation and different types of knowledge activities. There is abundant evidence showing that specific behaviors, knowledge specializations, and outcomes are prevalent in specific institutional set ups (Nelson 1993; Bloom and Van Reenen 2010), and among groups and organizations with specific organizational structures (Argyres and Silverman 2004; Cassiman et al 2010; Lazaric and Raybaut 2014; Gambardella et al 2015) These contributions have neglected a) the process of motivation alignment, i.e. the fact that certain innovative outcomes may require the creation of individual incentives for actions but most importantly that motivations of different actors are reconciled, and b) the fact that both institutions and organizational structures are simultaneously drivers of incentives for specific innovative motivations and behavior. We operationalize motivational alignment by the coexistence of the different partners’ motivations for collaboration
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
