Universities, human capital, social capital and enterprise: some lessons from the Czech Republic

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the state-of-the-art and potential of interactions between universities and firms, using the Zlinsky region as a case study. Practically, attitudes of firms located in the Zlinsky region towards their cooperation with the Tomas Bata University in Zlin are surveyed on the basis of questionnaire research. Theoretically, this paper is embedded in the debate on changing missions of universities. The findings point at a high share of firms which declare some form of interactions with the Tomas Bata University in Zlin. However, considering human and social capital, these interactions are frequent only in rather less progressive forms of interactions. More progressive interactions between firms and academics are rather scarce. Furthermore, the findings show a high potential to stimulate more progressive forms of interactions between firms and the Tomas Bata University in Zlin related to human and social capital. It is noteworthy that human and social capital of the university is not perceived as a barrier by the firms in our sample. On this basis, the development of support measures for creating links between academics from the Tomas Bata University in Zlin and firms in the Zlinsky region is recommended.