University-industry Collaboration Research Articles

A Spatial Temporal Exploration of Factors Motivating Academia-Industry Collaboration

Academia-industry collaboration has an essential role in enhancing the level of innovation in university and industry and encouraging economic development. It has been cited useful many learning models like organizational learning and transformational learning. However, previous studies lacked empirical quantitative analysis of collaboration determining factors. This study explores the econometric investigation of how different business, institutional and economic factors explain university-industry collaboration at a national level for the 139 countries between 2007 and 2018. Feasible generalized least square method has been used to explore this panel data analysis, whereby the effects of variables are different for different income groups. The estimation outcomes will provide strategic policy roadmap in developing a multisectoral collaborative environment.

Businesspeople: Academics need your help to make business research relevant

In the last two decades, industry-university collaborations (IUCs) in research and development in the hard sciences have become increasingly more successful and common. In contrast, successful IUCs in softer social sciences, such as business, remain relatively uncommon. But business research requires an even higher degree of collaboration than research in the hard sciences if its results are to be relevant to businesspeople. Fortunately, business academics are becoming more and more interested in collaborating with businesspeople. The purpose of this article is to motivate businesspeople to collaborate as well. We do this by showing the businessperson the historical origins of business research’s irrelevance, by describing the benefits the business world could receive from collaborative research, by showing why collaboration is especially needed in social sciences such as business, and by showing why academics cannot do relevant business research without practitioners’ help. Specifically, we will show that the businessperson’s help is needed to ensure that their priorities are met, to formulate the right research questions, to provide relevant data, and to contribute their problem-solving inventiveness.

University-industry collective actions framework: societal challenges, entrepreneurial interactions and outcomes

ABSTRACT University-industry collaboration is increasing its significance due to the active role that society demand from universities. An entrepreneurial university requires understanding the different rationalities and asymmetries of university, researchers and industry in order to best encourage inter-organisational willingness to collaborate as well as to know the impact of their collaboration beyond the boundaries of their partnership. This paper presents an exploratory and conceptual framework providing propositions to gain a better understanding concerning the factors driving and hindering interactions and the willingness to collaborate between university-industry actors. In addition, this research discusses the relevance of the type of impact (economic, technological and societal) of this collaboration as agents of an eco-system accomplishing innovation goals. It concludes with theoretical, managerial and policy implications based on asymmetries on expectations, benefits, capabilities, norms and actors-agency. Such asymmetries affect the entrepreneurial predisposition to interact and strive to achieve societal desirable collaboration outcomes. A preliminary collective actions framework is proposed. Such framework renders a useful tool for universities, industry and government in the management of knowledge transfer and collaboration.

The two sides of the coin: joint project leader interaction in university‐industry collaboration projects

This article focuses on how academic and industrial leaders view central aspects of the initiation, collaboration process, and the outcomes in government‐funded R&D projects. In much previous work on university‐industry collaborations (UICs), universities or researchers and/or firms have been studied without any direct reference to the other party, thus neglecting the fact that the motivations, perceptions, and actions involved in UICs are two‐sided at least. In contrast, this study builds on interviews with academic‐industry project leader pairs to identify how both sides perceive the initiation, interaction, conditions, and outcomes of the collaborative project. While there is unexpected overlap in both parties’ perceptions of goals and utilities of the collaboration, there is also a clear tendency for academics to stress the less tangible or distant factors (e.g., ‘a culture’, ‘priorities’, or general university support), while industry actors emphasize more tangible operative factors (e.g., collaborative networks, timing issues, having project owners and conflict resolution procedures). This might illustrate different cultural or professional mores as well as different notions of what types of efficiencies to seek collaborative R&D in general.

Performance of university technology transfer offices: evidence from Europe and Japan

PurposeThis study aims to improve the understanding of the factors that influence the performance of universities' technology transfer offices (TTOs), units charged with the responsibility for aiding the commercialization of research innovations.Design/methodology/approachTo empirically test the link between factors affecting TTO performance and whether these effects are contingent on a country-specific environment, survey data were collected from 187 TTO stakeholders (TTO heads, TTO employees and university researchers) in 18 countries of Europe and Japan, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used.FindingsThe results show that the internal embeddedness of a TTO within a university is the most important factor in determining a TTO's performance. A TTO's performance is positively affected by its marketing capabilities and social embeddedness. Strict patent portfolio management has no significant impact on TTO performance in Japan and has a negative effect on European TTOs' performance.Originality/valueThis study highlights the role of organizational and interorganizational factors in TTO performance; moreover, this is one of the few multi-continent (Europe and Asia) studies in the domain of university–industry collaborations, expanding the current understanding of the contingent roles of the region of operation, which has remained unexplored, as extant studies were typically conducted in only one country.

Towards Integrated Digital Twins for Industrial Products: Case Study on an Overhead Crane

Industrial Internet of Things practitioners are adopting the concept of digital twins at an accelerating pace. The features of digital twins range from simulation and analysis to real-time sensor data and system integration. Implementation examples of modeling-oriented twins are becoming commonplace in academic literature, but information management-focused twins that combine multiple systems are scarce. This study presents, analyzes, and draws recommendations from building a multi-component digital twin as an industry-university collaboration project and related smaller works. The objective of the studied project was to create a prototype implementation of an industrial digital twin for an overhead crane called “Ilmatar”, serving machine designers and maintainers in their daily tasks. Additionally, related cases focus on enhancing operation. This paper describes two tools, three frameworks, and eight proof-of-concept prototypes related to digital twin development. The experiences show that good-quality Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are significant enablers for the development of digital twins. Hence, we recommend that traditional industrial companies start building their API portfolios. The experiences in digital twin application development led to the discovery of a novel API-based business network framework that helps organize digital twin data supply chains.

University Industry Collaboration: A Promising Trilateral Co-Innovation Approach

Research and Development becomes one of the main pillars to build knowledge based economy nowadays. In highly competitive market, there is a real need for efficient mechanisms to have a successful technology development model. Open Innovation through University Industry Collaboration (UIC) is one of promising mechanisms to develop new technologies that can seed national knowledge economy. UIC model brings valuable benefits to both academia and industry in order to have efficient technology development processes. In addition, UIC offers university researchers an opportunity to have an exposure to industry and creates training and internship opportunities for university students. Trilateral collaboration model, which adds end-user to UIC arrangement, could bring an additional advantage to align the product development with actual customer needs making introduction of new product more successful. This paper gives an overview about the main aspects of trilateral collaboration and shows a real trilateral collaboration case between academia, technology provider and end-user to develop an actual product that serves end-user needs showing advantages and challenges of proposed model.

Industry-University Collaboration and Commercializing Chinese Corporate Innovation

We examine how industry-university collaboration (IUC) enhances the commercialization of corporate innovation using a comprehensive dataset of 93,303 industrial firms and 153 notable research universities in China. Measuring IUC with the occurrence and frequency of patents co-assigned to both firms and universities, we first document that firms with more IUC activities have better performance in commercializing their technology. Instrumental regressions, dynamic difference-in-differences analysis, and matched sample regressions all support a causal interpretation of the effect. Further evidence suggests that our results can be attributed to two channels through which firms benefit from IUC: knowledge acquisition and talent recruitment.

Innovation and competitiveness in the European Union countries

This paper examines innovation performance in association with competitiveness development in the European Union (EU) countries. The innovation factor indicators are linked to the global competitiveness index (GCI). The two set hypotheses are tested: first, that expenditure for research and development (R&D) in a company, and university-industry collaboration in researches affect GCI. Second, that the relationships exist between the GCI and innovation factor indicators, but there is a different strength of the connection. A special focus of the analysis is on the two sub-periods: during the economic crisis in the years 2008-2013 and the post-economic crisis in the years 2014-2017. The research contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between expenditures for R&D in a company, university-industry collaboration in researches, and the GCI. The results also confirmed a positive correlation, but different strength of the connection between the GCI and other analysed innovation factor variables such as innovation capacity, quality of research institutions, availability of scientists, a number of registered patents applications, and government procurement of advanced technology products. The results suggest that gross domestic product per capita is positively correlated with innovation factor indicators and the GCI.

Innovation and Competitiveness in the European Union Countries

This paper examines innovation performance in association with competitiveness development in the European Union (EU) countries. The innovation factor indicators are linked to the global competitiveness index (GCI). The two set hypotheses are tested: first, that expenditure for research and development (R&D) in a company, and university-industry collaboration in researches affect GCI. Second, that the relationships exist between the GCI and innovation factor indicators, but there is a different strength of the connection. A special focus of the analysis is on the two sub-periods: during the economic crisis in the years 2008-2013 and the post-economic crisis in the years 2014-2017. The research contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between expenditures for R&D in a company, university-industry collaboration in researches, and the GCI. The results also confirmed a positive correlation, but different strength of the connection between the GCI and other analysed innovation factor variables such as innovation capacity, quality of research institutions, availability of scientists, a number of registered patents applications, and government procurement of advanced technology products. The results suggest that gross domestic product per capita is positively correlated with innovation factor indicators and the GCI.

Maturity Model for Collaborative R&D University-Industry Sustainable Partnerships

Abstract University-Industry collaborations in R&D have grown significantly in recent years. In more developed economies, governments encourage, by finance, collaboration and the exchange of knowledge between private industry and universities. However, it is still a challenge for organizations and universities to identify the best practices adopted to establish and sustain collaboration. This has led to the growing need to establish practices and principles to guide the initiation, implementation and assessment of successful collaboration. Therefore, maturity models can be a way of establishing and sustaining collaboration as it helps organizations and universities to evaluate their processes against best practices and propose actions for improvement. This paper introduces preliminary results of ongoing research to create a maturity model for the sustainable university-industry relationship. This model based literature review and on a six-year experience of the relationship between the University of Minho and Bosch Car Multimedia (Braga)

A Stakeholders’ Perspective on Risk Management for Collaborative University-Industry R&D Programs

Abstract University-industry collaborative programs provide special challenges in understanding and expressing the value of risk management (RM) in delivering program and project benefits. This paper presents a methodology for managing the risks in major university-industry R&D programs within a stakeholders’ perspective. An ethnographic study was conducted on a multi-million euro university-industry collaboration initiative. The RM methodology identifies, for each of the key stakeholders, the RM activities in the program, which are largely derived from research literature. Empirical research then prioritizes and selects key RM activities. The research is informed using a case study involving one university and one large industrial partner. Empirical research was conducted by researchers who observed, for five years, at close quarters, the challenges of managing risk in major collaborative programs. The developed RM methodology takes a stakeholders’ perspective, by identifying, for each of the key three stakeholders - Program Manager, Project Manager and Program and Project Management Officer, the respective RM activities.

Коммерческая деятельность университетов: взаимодействие со стейкхолдерами

The paper explores the effect of different stakeholders (the definition of the term "stakeholder" within this research paper is presented in the Introduction) on the income generation of the university. There is a growing focus from the research perspective and university management on the ability of universities to sustain their financial sustainability due to the shortage of financial support from the government. Adopting different instruments, university faculty is one of the vital stakeholders for generating revenues for the university via engaging with different actors. This research adopted quantitative techniques by applying secondary data on university-industry collaboration in the UK to evaluate the effect of different stakeholders on university financial positions. The results show that government and Industry are among the initial stakeholders to contribute to university financial results while the support of other actors is vital but different across university types. This research can be helpful for university managers as a guide to explain different paths of collaboration with stakeholders that can lead to different strategies to increase university income.

"Nothing happens in a vacuum here": university-industry collaboration in Iceland

In recent years, universities have become driving forces of economic growth, and they have taken greater responsibility in economic, cultural, and social matters. Thereby, universities have placed ...

"Nothing happens in a vacuum here": university-industry collaboration in Iceland

"Nothing happens in a vacuum here": university-industry collaboration in Iceland

An Evolutionary Game Analysis of Synergetic Innovation behaviour in regional innovation networks

Regional innovation network has become an important way to improve national independent innovation ability and promote regional and social development. This paper studies the evolution of the synergetic innovation system of industry-university-Research Collaboration under the government behaviour, constructs an asymmetric evolutionary game model between the government and industry-university Research collaboration, and analyses the influence of parameter changes on synergetic innovation decisionmaking behaviour. The results showed that the government’s regulatory costs, subsidies from the government, the production, will take the profit resulting from the synergetic innovation behavior, coordination costs and government punishment, and one party to the cooperative behaviour decision to bring the other side of the loss factors such as size, to participate in Innovation decision-making behaviour of the subject of dynamic evolution path and the results have important influence to the use of MATLAB software evolution paths of related factors under different conditions and the trend of simulation test and verify.

University-industry collaboration for sustainable development: the case of innovation intermediaries

University-industry collaboration for sustainable development: the case of innovation intermediaries

Exploring the Uncharted Territories of the University-Industry Collaboration: A spectrum of knowledge transfer through formal and informal channels

Exploring the Uncharted Territories of the University-Industry Collaboration: A spectrum of knowledge transfer through formal and informal channels

FACTORS AFFECTING EFFECTIVE UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY COLLABORATION DURING THE DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH STAGE

In Malaysia, collaboration between university and industry is still limited. This requires improvement of current practices in developing effective collaborations. However, there are still projects that fail to deliver, and it is quite challenging and difficult to assess the recent successful university-industry collaboration projects. In light of this, background problem, the present research was aimed at identifying the factors which hindered effective collaboration between university and industry, especially during the development research stage. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between the success factors and the effectiveness of collaborative projects during the development, research stage. This study adopted a quantitative research method. Survey questionnaires were distributed among researchers involved in a collaborative project funded by a government grant scheme. The results showed that reward had a positive and significant relationship with both process- and outcome-related criteria. Meanwhile, financial support had a negative and significant relationship with a process-related criterion. The findings can be used as guidelines for collaboration stakeholders to develop an effective collaborative project.

A Study on the Possibilities and Limits of the University-Industry Collaboration Faculty System based on their Experiences

A Study on the Possibilities and Limits of the University-Industry Collaboration Faculty System based on their Experiences