University-business Cooperation Research Articles

Business and Academia Collaboration: Empowering Internationalization in Albania

Global and European challenges have shift dynamic expectations from universities, going beyond ‘centers of knowledge’, towards the urge of producing sustainable research and innovation that impact communities. Despite of taking care of ‘producing’ professionalism, there is a strong need inside academia to ask business collaboration in order to catch up the new developments and be competitive in the trade market. Positioning the field of research into the session of Educational Globalization ‘Higher Education Internalization, curricula and methodologies’ is a possibility to find out current and updated resources or even new policy strategies on how to adapt synergies into the terms of globalization and European challenges ahead for academia. This research aims to explore and analyze the current European practice of collaboration between business sector and universities and offer proper alternatives to be embraced from Albanian universities activity. Based on the findings of European Commission, there are less universities (more than half) rather than business organizations that demonstrate cooperation (72 %). Does this mean that business sector is more willing to get closer with academia? It is courageous that both universities and business sector demonstrate more than average the will to smartly collaborate within this dimension. It is interesting that among all the high number of legal acts and policy level documents of EU, there is none that explicitly treats UBC (University Business Cooperation) as a specific policy or issue. Having a specific policy document into EU level that can envisage this pattern, will strongly put this issue into the proper spotlight of the understanding and potentially could encourage both of the structures to raise proper attention to UBC. Also, having a separate document on UBC can produce sustainable impact, bringing this not as a sporadic solution, but prompting sustainable results for business, academia and the community. The vague position of UBC into European policy making is not in the same line with successful histories of European universities that have established on their own initiative different level of collaboration. High-ranking universities in Europe have a lot to learn from good models and practices in this area. There is no need to wait for the national, regional or European document that can treat collaboration between university and academia. Universities can be the first initiators of getting closer to business sector in order to strengthen capacity building, research and innovation. Despite of this context, there are a lot of good examples that European universities have established by their own being empowered through business sector connection. Received: 25 December 2023 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 23 April 2024

The Influence of University-Business Cooperation in the Development of Local Tourism in Kazakhstan: Documentary Analysis

Cooperation between universities and businesses has become a potent tool for driving innovation, economic growth, and societal development. Through this partnership, universities and business companies can pool their resources, knowledge, and practical experience. Universities have significant expertise in tourism research, education, and training that can be used by businesses to enhance their products, services, and operational procedures. Businesses, in turn, offer useful insights and real-world problems that influence academic research and curriculum development. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of university-business cooperation on the expansion and enhancement of the local tourism industry in Kazakhstan. This study uses documentary analysis as a research approach and examines current legislation, reports, policy papers, existing literature, and other pertinent sources to find out more about the role of university-business cooperation in the tourism industry. The findings emphasize the importance of university-business collaboration in fostering innovation and technological advancement, facilitating knowledge transfer and skills development, contributing to regional economic development, addressing societal challenges, and promoting sustainable development. It stresses that university-business cooperation is essential to the growth of local tourism. By fostering knowledge exchange, innovation, and collaboration, these partnerships create a supporting ecosystem that promotes the competitiveness and sustainable expansion of the local tourism sector.

ОПЫТ РАЗВИТИЯ ПРАКТИКООРИЕНТИРОВАННОГО ОБУЧЕНИЯ В ЕВРОПЕЙСКОЙ СИСТЕМЕ ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

The paper attempts to provide some insight into development and make suggestions for improvement of students’ work-based learning (WBL) and practical placements based on the analysis of some WBL cases in European universities. These proposals aim to improve the quality of education and ensure the decent employment of the graduates. The large-scale survey of employers revealed their high interest in the admission of students for practical placements. The proposals for the organization of WBL and practical placements based on close university-business cooperation were set forward within the ERASMUS+ project «UniLab – From university to labour market in the 21st century: a step forward in work-based placements” which embraced seven countries, including Russia with four university participants. Theoretical and empirical analysis of the EU cases helped the project partners identified some future-proofed tools for the Russian HEIs. To achieve the goals set in the project, the following methods were used: document analysis, literature review, study the best experience of the UniLab partners, and the survey of companies. The article makes contribution to the existing volume of research and knowledge related to the university-business partnerships, and suggests positive steps that need to be taken for upgrading WBL efficiency.

ОПЫТ РАЗВИТИЯ ПРАКТИКООРИЕНТИРОВАННОГО ОБУЧЕНИЯ В ЕВРОПЕЙСКОЙ СИСТЕМЕ ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

The paper attempts to provide some insight into development and make suggestions for improvement of students’ work-based learning (WBL) and practical placements based on the analysis of some WBL cases in European universities. These proposals aim to improve the quality of education and ensure the decent employment of the graduates. The large-scale survey of employers revealed their high interest in the admission of students for practical placements. The proposals for the organization of WBL and practical placements based on close university-business cooperation were set forward within the ERASMUS+ project «UniLab – From university to labour market in the 21st century: a step forward in work-based placements” which embraced seven countries, including Russia with four university participants. Theoretical and empirical analysis of the EU cases helped the project partners identified some future-proofed tools for the Russian HEIs. To achieve the goals set in the project, the following methods were used: document analysis, literature review, study the best experience of the UniLab partners, and the survey of companies. The article makes contribution to the existing volume of research and knowledge related to the university-business partnerships, and suggests positive steps that need to be taken for upgrading WBL efficiency

СИЛА ИСКУССТВА: ПОЭЗИЯ ПРОТИВ ТУБЕРКУЛЕЗА

The paper attempts to provide some insight into development and make suggestions for improvement of students’ work-based learning (WBL) and practical placements based on the analysis of some WBL cases in European universities. These proposals aim to improve the quality of education and ensure the decent employment of the graduates. The large-scale survey of employers revealed their high interest in the admission of students for practical placements. The proposals for the organization of WBL and practical placements based on close university-business cooperation were set forward within the ERASMUS+ project «UniLab – From university to labour market in the 21st century: a step forward in work-based placements” which embraced seven countries, including Russia with four university participants. Theoretical and empirical analysis of the EU cases helped the project partners identified some future-proofed tools for the Russian HEIs. To achieve the goals set in the project, the following methods were used: document analysis, literature review, study the best experience of the UniLab partners, and the survey of companies. The article makes contribution to the existing volume of research and knowledge related to the university-business partnerships, and suggests positive steps that need to be taken for upgrading WBL efficiency.

Promoting University – Business Long-Term Collaboration through Vocational Education

University-business cooperation for many years has been an increasingly important issue raised national policy level, as well as at higher education institutions itself. The fact that the learning environment and the labor market needs are continuously changing makes it challenging for both spheres to be perfectly synchronized. Regarding the public policies on education, vocational education has been a priority for the government in the last years, expressed also in several documents as educational strategy, Higher Education law and Strategy of Employment and Skills. This prioritization aims the creation of a system that at best meets the need of the labor market. The improvement of vocational education is seen as good path to fulfill the gap between university and labor market through improving professional skills, life skills development (soft skill) and an offer focused to business need. From a business standpoint, vocational education receives a great deal of attention and are demonstrated as a profitable long-term investment with a significant contribution to productivity growth. Cooperation with the university can be formal and / or informal. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the cooperation between Universities and Businesses in the business perspective, the methodology used is through descriptive analyze based on primary and secondary data collection. Based on the results we expect to contribute with suggestions for all business to encourage building strategic partnerships with universities. One of the main conclusions of the paper is that, when businesses are connected to universities, they have a ready-made pool of talent filled with exactly the type of people that they need and working with universities, they can guide students to develop the skills that they need to form a partnership.
 
 Received: 23 September 2022 / Accepted: 28 November 2022 / Published: 20 December 2022

Drivers of university-business cooperation of university faculty from the social cognitive theory perspective.

As an independent research field, there is growing attention to university–business cooperation (UBC). However, few studies focus on the driving factors of UBC, which remains an open problem in this area. This study analyzes a broad mix of drivers underlying seven UBC activities, namely, curriculum development and design (CDD), student mobility (SD), lifelong learning (LLL), professional mobility (PM), research and development (R&D), commercialization (COM), and entrepreneurship (ENT), and discusses the internal mechanism and external environment of higher education institutions (HEIs) as the moderator variable affecting UBC activities and individual motivations. Specifically, based on the social cognition theory, the independent variables include motivations (money, career, research, education, and social), the internal mechanism (support mechanism, strategic mechanism, and management mechanism), and the external environment (policy environment, economic environment, and cultural environment) are designed. The aforementioned seven UBC activities are taken as dependent variables. This work takes university faculty as the research object. Through empirical analysis, it demonstrates that the combination of driving factors of different UBC activities has its particularity. Furthermore, the results showed that the internal mechanism and external environment of HEIs could positively moderate the relationship between individual motivations and UBC activities. In terms of theoretical contribution, this study reveals the combination of factors that drive university faculty to engage in UBC. On the other hand, it can provide a reference for policymakers and managers to better development of UBC.

University Science Parks as an Innovative Tool for University-Business Cooperation

Collaboration between universities, business and government is important in creating innovation, but often they face barriers which block the successful cooperation among institutional spheres. To improve and strengthen collaboration and overcome existing barriers were created hybrid organizations (like university science parks, research centres or incubators) to address innovation blockages. With the growing popularity of this tool among regional policy makers, there is a need to specify their roles and functions in regional innovation systems. The main goal of our paper is to examine the contribution of university science parks and research centres in Slovakia, which were built thanks to financial support from European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). University science parks (USPs) and research centres (RCs) are tools for connecting the university, industry and government sector in a Triple helix framework. They create a suitable space for generating innovation with existing resources at universities, research institutes, research departments of companies and governments, and improve them through mutual interactions. We applied the method of quantitative research – an online questionnaire survey complemented with interviews, which we used to collect basic data on all science parks in Slovakia. The key question in the article is whether research infrastructures represent effective investment with long-term sustainability. We evaluated the current functioning of the parks in terms of fulfilling the functions that contribute to innovation creation, because quality and modern infrastructure is a prerequisite for the implementation of research, the results of which have a high development and innovation potential. We found that the research infrastructure doesn’t perform the required functions, which were declared during their creation. The main barriers to development include insufficient funding for research, technological infrastructure and long-term financing of professional staff. Unclear conditions for the continued operation of parks and uncertain position of government support shows that these investment projects financed by the European Funds are not independently viable after the end of the sustainability period.

Advancing University-Business Cooperation in the Mediterranean Area

Advancing University-Business Cooperation in the Mediterranean Area

University-Business Cooperation as a Key Factor in Innovative Economic Development in Kazakhstan

The aim of this article is to study the role of university-business cooperation in innovative economic development in Kazakhstan. It was considered some issues related to the creation of research universities, the development of innovative activities and university-business cooperation. The study revealed that the creation of the partnership between universities and technology parks is beneficial from an economic perspective. This interaction provides high-quality training for experts focused on innovation in priority areas of science, engineering, and technology development. Moreover, these integration structures are expected to have a significant impact on the socio-economic development of the region, specialized industries, and the higher education system. It was suggested a set of interacting organizational and economic components aimed at creating incentives and interests for investing in small innovative enterprises at research universities. The principal research method used in this study was a documentary analysis method. The state programmes and regulations of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of science, education and innovation were examined. International articles and monographs were reviewed, which were conducted based on the empirical research methods and statistical data. The results of empirical studies conducted by national scholars over the last few years were used as secondary data.

An analysis of the organisational factors that determine education-related university-business cooperation activities in manufacturing SMEs

ABSTRACT Cooperation between universities and business is manifest in a wide range of activities related to the three missions of the entrepreneurial university: education, research and entrepreneurship. However, the vast majority of University-Business Cooperation (UBC) literature has focused on R&D-related activities. This bias has given rise to a lack of knowledge of the organisational context-related factors that shape businesses’ cooperation with universities. In order to address this research gap, this quantitative study, by means of a series of multivariate linear regression models, identifies the organisational context-related factors that determine manufacturing SMEs’ cooperation levels in education-related UBC activities. Applying a questionnaire to a sample of 332 manufacturing SMEs located in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Spain), the impact is analysed of organisational context-related factors – general business characteristics, business openness, R&D, innovation, and UBC willingness and support – on 5 types of UBC activities that have been identified and classified in the field of education, namely, mobility of students, dual education, curriculum co-design, curriculum co-delivery and lifelong learning.

Regional development dynamics: university-business cooperation strategies

In today’s world, with the globalisation process, the functions of higher education institutions have changed within the framework of new strategies and cooperation models. In this process, the potential of higher education institutions to increase local, regional, national and international development and competitiveness, especially through their innovation development capabilities, becomes increasingly important. Universities, within the framework of their education, research and innovation missions, have defined their role in regional development by developing other cooperation models. The most effective way of transferring the knowledge produced in the academic field to the production process is to provide university-business cooperation. The cooperation in question both ensures the rational use of scarce resources and constitutes the driving force of national and regional development. Higher education institutions reflect political, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of the region. Universities have to respond to the opportunities presented in the regional context by developing research agendas that reflect these characteristics and to be the focal point of the regional innovation system and trigger the process. In this study, university business world cooperation models and the effects of these formations on the regional economy are examined.

Communication as a factor limiting university-business cooperation

Objective - Despite the broad extent of the scientific activity dealing with university-business cooperation, Poland has yet to develop a satisfactory cooperation strategy that takes business needs into account. This issue is still relevant due to the need for continuous improvement and resulting benefits aimed at improving enterprise competitiveness. Methodology/Technique - Authors of this article attempt to select an overriding determinant that has an impact on maintaining the balance of cooperation between businesses and universities, constituting the basis for further research on the creation of a cooperation strategy. Finding - Based on the conducted pilot studies, the authors propose the implementation of marketing orientation towards business-university relations, influencing the improvement of communication and selective drawing of ideas from the experiences of other countries. Novelty - The proposed solutions aim to initiate further activities to build global cooperation networks using artificial intelligence tools, i.e. a broker platform. Type of Paper - Empirical Keywords: Communication, Business, University, Cooperation, Marketing Orientation JEL Classification: L320, L330, M200.

How to Improve University-Business Cooperation in Postgraduate Education: Effects on Students’Satisfaction

How to Improve University-Business Cooperation in Postgraduate Education: Effects on Students’Satisfaction

UNIVERSITY BUSINESS COOPERATION AS A QUALITY SIGNAL


 
 
 This study employed signaling theory for building and testing conceptual model to explore the role of quality cues (including University Business Cooperation (UBC) and Credibility Brand (CB)) to signal the quality for products which had unobservable quality and their impact on perceived sacrifice for increasing consumer’s purchase intention. The study was conducted with two independent cases: Tra Vinh Viettel and Tra Vinh University (TVU), there were 121 telecommunications service customers and 159 senior students interviewed, then the SmartPLS software was used for analyzing data. The research results confirmed these cues to be the quality signals; Credibility Brand negatively effects on perceived sacrifice in case 1, but for case 2, this has no statistical significance; UBC effects on perceived sacrifice in both cases positively. The results encourage enterprises and universities to invest in UBC and CB appropriately to effectively exploit this quality signal and also to attract customers to consume more products. The study was carried out in Tra Vinh Province of Vietnam with non-probability sampling method, and only implemented in the cases of TVU and Viettel, which limit the reliability and popularity of the study.
 
 

Barriers to Effective Interaction of Russian Universities and Companies

Today universities become drivers of technology and business development all over the world. Besides fulfilling traditional tasks of creating new knowledge and competence, higher education institutions play a significant role in developing innovative ecosystems and entrepreneurship. In Russia, however, the interaction of universities and business is forming not as quickly as in developed economies. This article uses qualitative interviews and case analysis to identify and discuss the barriers to effective university-enterprise interaction in Russia. The research is based on expert interviews with representatives of universities and businesses, as well as on the case study of PJSC «LUKOIL» and HEIs interaction. The study showed that the development of university-enterprise interaction meets several barriers rooted in the mismatch of both sides’ expectations of each other. The results of the research also show promising directions for university-business cooperation in Russia.

Accounting Education in the Universities and Structuring According to the Expectations of the Business World

One of the important factors shaping accounting education is the business world. Structuring of accounting education according to the expectations of the business world which will employ the graduates is an important issue and it is especially necessary in our country. Every year, significant numbers of expenditures are provided for education in Azerbaijan. In order to get even more efficiency from these expenditures, education system should be developed, updated and renewed. Developed countries meet the need for labor force by the business world with vocational training methods which are formed according to businesses’ internal dynamics, by taking advantage of international experiences. Countries that implement their education based on university-business cooperation are only those who apply school-based education, and countries that adopt both approaches but are constantly in pursuit of achieving this goal through three different methods. (It needs to indicate the methods) The current education system in Azerbaijan is based on theoretical approach. Due to the expectations of the business world and the importance of modern accounting education, the specialization level of the graduates is expected to be brought to the standards of the business world who will employ them, by restructuring accounting education itself. In this study, we analyzed expectations of the business world from the accounting education in the Universities and Vocational Schools in Azerbaijan and determined main problems they face in this field. For this purpose, a research has been conducted on the expectations of the companies operating in Baku from teaching of accounting. In this research, general information about accounting and educational institutions, the structure of the current accounting training in universities, the perspective of the business world in accounting teaching and their expectations were analyzed. In the technical part, 110 questionnaires collected from various respondents were analyzed with SPSS-25 program package with descriptive statistics and factor analysis methods and the results were interpreted. The vocational courses taken by new graduates during their accounting education are ranked according to their importance by the members of the profession.

Behavioural Economics in Higher Education Institution - Business Collaboration Paradigm in Context of Global Competition

Research background: More than ever before governments, education institutions, industries, researchers and civilians are setting indebted attention to discover and learn more about behavioral science. The recent advancements in applying behavioral economics to the sphere of higher education show that building partnerships among educational institutions involves specific skills, strategies and knowledge that parties must know and use. Different industry representatives are scouting Higher Education Institutions for an ever-expanding set of innovation activities. Government invest more and more efforts to create innovative ecosystems where higher educational institutions are main stake holders in this special community between industries, corporations, governmental institutions, entrepreneurs and investors. The partnership involves adopting a management based on cooperation and change, communication and awareness of diversity. However, university-business cooperation is still a fragmented and indistinct field of research, and the understanding of UBC remains inadequate since most research is undertaken around specific elements, rather than as an encompassing, overarching and interconnected system Purpose of the article: To research the undergraduates’ appraisal of Higher Education Institution and Business collaboration. Methods: Expert interviews and undergraduate students’ survey using 7-point Likert scale questionnaire (non-probability snowball sampling method). Findings & Value added: Through evaluation of different statements about Higher Education Institution – Business collaboration, we discover distinctive statement importance and advancement according to respondent current views. This knowledge facilitates author’s capability to develop and advise nudges which can be applied in performance of such collaboration.

Living labs and co-creation techniques for university-business cooperation: a case study

The paper reports about a case study about the regional role of universities, by focusing on the implementation and management of living labs to promote local tourism. The aim is to provide evidence of effective approaches to involve stakeholders in initiatives of regional development. To this aim, the stakeholder engagement activities that took place at the University of Macerata (Italy) were analysed. The conclusions highlight the usefulness of the methodologies and techniques used to facilitate university-business cooperation under the aegis of a living lab.

Universities and Wineries: Supporting Sustainable Development in Disadvantaged Rural Areas

This exploratory study focuses on the role of the university in supporting sustainable development in rural areas, focusing on small wine producers, particularly those located in remote and disadvantaged areas. Disadvantaged areas have distinctive features. Firstly, they are fragile areas from a sociodemographic point of view because of population ageing. Secondly, they are unstable from an environmental (physical, eco-systemic) point of view, as a consequence of insufficient maintenance of their seminatural capital. University–business cooperation with companies located in those areas thus needs to be designed by considering the specific characteristic of the place. Therefore, this exploratory study sought to understand how the university can work with small wineries and support them and their rural area to face inequalities and low growth, and foster social innovation. We present a case study based on field research in Italy. The results—based on the analysis of 26 semistructured interviews with small wine producers—are discussed by exploring the potential form of cooperation between rural stakeholders and universities, beyond the concept of knowledge transfer. Conclusions highlight the need for the university to act as a facilitator of dialogue at a territorial level, as a first step toward to formulation of shared sustainable goals.