University-industry Interactions Research Articles

Motivations for University-Industry Interaction: A Typology of Academic Scientists at the National University of Colombia

In recent decades there has been an intensification of reflections on university-industry interaction as a mechanism for promoting innovation in countries, especially those characterized by a fragile collaboration between science and technology organizations and the productive apparatus. This article examines Colombian academic scientists who collaborate with industry, understanding their motivations and the interaction channels they use. To do this, a qualitative-type research study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with fifteen scientists and three employees involved in technology transfer programs at the National University of Colombia. As a result, we identified heterogeneous positions regarding the university-industry interaction and proposed four groups: i) “Circumstantial collaborators,” who have sporadic contact with industry; ii) “Independent,” who develop their own initiatives through spin-offs with sporadic contacts with industry; iii) “Integrated,” who see industry as a strategic partner and do not wish to undertake entrepreneurship; and iv) “Academic entrepreneurs,” who create spin-offs and see industry as a strategic partner. The main contribution of this work is the typology of academic scientists in the context of a Latin American country, which has implications for technology transfer offices in universities, with a recommendation towards creating typology-based programs, since the incentives that work for one type of scientist may not be the right fit for others.

Minding the communications gap: How can universities signal the availability and value of their scientific knowledge to commercial organizations?

We posit that a communications gap exists between universities and commercial organizations, attributed to their idiosyncratic goals, interests, and incentives. To bridge this gap, universities need to recognize and leverage observable differences in the strength of signals and the width of channels used to disseminate their scientific knowledge externally. We explore these ideas by analyzing knowledge dissemination and academic engagement activities in 133 UK universities in the period 2011–2019. Our analysis shows that universities with a lower scientific impact have a higher intensity of collaborative research, contract research, and consultancy activities if they communicate that impact through more prominent scientific outlets. In turn, universities with a higher scientific impact have a lower intensity of interaction with commercial organizations if they communicate their scientific impact through less prominent scientific outlets. We further reveal that universities with a higher economic impact show a higher intensity of collaborative research. At the same time, we find no evidence that the social impact generated by universities is linked to the intensity of university-industry interaction, no matter the channels through which that impact is communicated. Using these findings, we draw implications for practice and policy.

Doing science together: Gaining momentum from long-term explorative university–industry research programs

'Doing science together' collaborations are a more intense form of university-industry interactions and are characterized by a mutual involvement and active participation of academic and company scientists in scientific research. Here, we examine the successful approach that AstraZeneca and its internationally renowned academic partners, Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University, implemented to fully unlock the potential of all parties in long-term, explorative, truly collaborative research programs. The underlying premises of these successful research programs are three collaborative governance mechanisms (3MCs) that are required that leverage the strengths of each organization: mutual collaboration; mutually beneficial science; and a mutual governance model with senior management involvement.

Does geographical proximity still matter for innovation? Notes on university-industry interaction from the perspective of a peripheral context

Interactions between universities and industry are essential for innovation systems, whereby the process is catalyzed by the proximity between these actors in different dimensions (cognitive, organizational, social, institutional and geographical). The present paper seeks to investigate the specific importance of geographical proximity for university-industry interactions during a specific moment in Brazil’s peripheral socioeconomic formation, with the construction of an institutional framework that proved favorable to peripheral innovation and the advancement of information and communication technologies that would dispense with co-location and face-to-face contact in collective learning processes. By applying multiple linear regression analysis and smallest space analysis (SSA) to a database obtained from an extensive survey, it was observed that, associated with the cognitive dimension, geographical proximity still prevails in interactions for innovation in peripheral contexts.

The Dynamics of University-Industry Interactions in Peripheral Contexts: Evidence from Brazil

This research aims at addressing the factors that constrain the flow of knowledge between universities and industry when these players are embedded in peripheral contexts. A multiple-case study was carried out in order to describe and understand the limitations of universities as agents of innovation in peripheral ecosystems. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the coordinators of five Technological Innovation Centers (entities equivalent to TTO) of all Federal Institutes (five) located in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The findings show that there are constraining elements associated with the socioeconomic environment (the lack of economic dynamism and low absorptive capacity at firms), with universities (a lack of infrastructure, resources, and available researchers) and intermediary agents (the lack of staff and institutional legitimacy). The observed conditions lead to challenges in fostering dense knowledge flows, thus perpetuating regional economic asymmetries and hindering the institutional evolution of academic institutions toward the notion of entrepreneurial universities. Our research contributes to literature by addressing in detail the limitations of universities in spurring dense innovation networks in laggard ecosystems. Instead, more complex co-evolutionary processes seem to be at play – and “silver bullet” policies are likely to offer disappointing results.

The Role of University in the Smart Specialization Strategy: Exploring How University–Industry Interactions Change in Different Technological Domains

The smart specialization strategy (S3) introduces a new “policy-prioritization logic” according to which regional strategies should target interventions in those research and innovation domains in which the region has a competitive advantage. In other words, the adoption of an S3 strategy has shifted the regional innovation strategies’ focus from privileging exclusively high-tech sectors to including also those lower tech domains that are recognized as a source of regional competitive advantage. As a consequence, this shift calls for a rethinking of university–industry relationships for innovation, which have traditionally privileged high-tech sectors. In this light, this article aims to analyze how the introduction of the S3 has changed the role of universities by comparing patterns of academic engagement with local entrepreneurs in both low-tech and high-tech domains. To this purpose, we conduct an empirical study in the Region of Campania (South of Italy) to analyze differences in terms of university–industry channels and motivations in different S3 technological domains.

The role of the university research laboratory in technology transfer to firms in Brazil: Two case studies in biotechnology

This paper analyzes the role of the university research laboratory in university–industry interactions for technology transfer. Specifically, it examines how the laboratory research infrastructure, team qualification and local incentives influence knowledge and technology transfer in biotechnology. Despite the importance of the research laboratory for an entrepreneurial university and the development of new technologies, few studies have focused on this level of analysis. This research addresses this literature gap with data from two leading laboratories in a highly-ranked Brazilian university. Data were collected through questionnaires on laboratory infrastructure and channels of collaboration with firms, interviews with laboratory leaders and key post-doc fellows, and documentary research. The results show that physical infrastructure, biological samples and qualified teams enabled technology transfer to firms. The main channel of interaction between these laboratories and firms is the generation of spin-offs, which perform the bilateral hybrid function of disseminating university research results and brokering patent licensing to larger firms. Spin-offs also contribute to the absorptive capacity of larger firms and, above all, allow laboratories to disclose results to the community and potential end-users. The findings present a new perspective on spin-off technology transfer in Brazil and open new research avenues for other developing countries.

Fundamental elements of university-industry interaction from a grounded theory approach

PurposeThis work aims to analyze the university–industry interaction in innovation ecosystems. The problem under study addresses how agents can operate in university–industry interactions to enhance the connections, specifically in the aspect of operational mechanisms of an innovation ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachThe study is qualitative, applied through grounded theory approach, cross-sectional and multiple sources of evidence – semi-structured interviews were conducted. An explanatory conceptual model was subsequently compared with the literature and validated with specialists.FindingsThe results showed that the university–industry interaction is influenced by several factors, such as networking, legal support, facilitating agents, management practices. Despite this, some other factors were identified for the improvement of U–I relationships, such as: strengthening of triple helix, greater legal certainty and encouragement of open innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThe small sample size and the heterogeneity among the universities interviewed did not allow full saturation to occur. In spite of that, a significant level of saturation with respect to the challenges and barriers was observed.Practical implicationsThis work has a direct dialogue with researchers, managers and actors involved in university–industry interaction with regard to increasing the capacity for creation and dissemination of knowledge among organizations, educational institutions, government and companies.Originality/valueBy adopting a grounded theory approach, a detailed research agenda addresses research needs in two main areas: activities that precede the interaction between universities and companies, and the organization and management of the consequences of collaborative relationships.

Emergence and Scale-up of Frugal Innovations: The Relevance of University-Industry Interaction

This article analyses the emergence and scale-up of frugal innovations supported by university-industry interactions in the Colombian context. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight researchers from the National University of Colombia, who participated in activities to transfer technology to society through frugal innovations. Results highlight the social role of the Colombian university and the motivations of the participating researchers to develop frugal innovations. Three benefits of the university-industry interaction to develop and upscale frugal innovations were identified and described: a) the exchange of specialised knowledge that helps to do incremental improvements on frugal innovations; b) the strengthening of distribution and marketing strategies of innovation, supporting its implementation in different contexts; and c) advantages in scaling up production. The relevance of these findings to understand frugal innovation processes and their implications for designing support services by university technology transfer offices are discussed.

Development of university–industry interactions for knowledge-based economy in Nigeria

This article is predicated on university–industry interaction as a precursor for knowledge-based economic development in Nigeria. It is a preparatory pilot study for full-fledged Ph.D. research, highlighting the collaboration within two universities and six knowledge-intensive firms. The firms are software and hardware development companies located in Maiduguri and Kano, both in Northern Nigeria. A conceptual framework was designed based on the national innovation system (NIS) to measure the intensity of the collaboration, possible innovation output and knowledge flow between the universities and industry. Findings show a limited partnership due to factors inhibiting the relationships, such as communication problems, trust issues, lack of motivation, different orientations of the organizations and different research orientations.

How industry projects can stimulate academic engagement: an experimental study among U.S. engineering professors

ABSTRACT Technology transfer remains one of the key functions of universities, seen with the growing importance attached to interactions between them and industry partners. Relying on self-determination theory (SDT), we develop a framework comprising the core motivational factors inherent in the design of industry projects and individual determinants which influence a professor’s willingness to engage in industry interaction activities. Based on a conjoint experiment among 250 U.S. professors in engineering sciences, our findings suggest that motivational incentives shape a professor’s disposition towards industry interaction. We additionally provide further insight into how intrinsic motivational structures towards industry engagement are moderated by individual characteristics, including the short-term orientation of professors towards industry activities. Our results contribute to research on university-industry interactions by developing deeper insights into the motivational structures of individual researchers. We also provide practical insights for university administrators and industry managers.

Knowledge networks in Brazil’s health sciences

AbstractThis study aims to analyze the network of interactions of Brazilian medical research groups, identifying key actors and their roles in generating and diffusing knowledge. Social network analysis was applied, with data from the Research Groups Directory Census of the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development, from 2016. The main results show (1) the central role of universities, public institutes, and university hospital research groups; (2) the importance of scientific infrastructure and research capability of scientists in knowledge production; (3) the minor role of the industry, denoting the fragility of university–industry interactions; (4) spatial concentration of network actors, mostly located in the south and southeast of Brazil; and (5) a great opportunity to expand flows and cooperation. Regarding these results, the recent budgetary cuts in science and technology resources since 2016 seem to be a misguided and detrimental strategy as these resources are essential for future technological and industrial development.

University-Industry Interaction in Tunisia: Exploring Benefits for the University from a Firm Level of Analysis

During the last three decades, university–industry interaction (U–I) has appeared as a specific field of study. In this context, research which study benefits that these relationships can bring to university remain insufficiently explored. Specifically, studies on developing countries remain fewer. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of interactions by exploring benefits that firms can bring to university from a firm level of analysis. The importance of such relations has been discussed in many studies but studying benefits from a firm level are still poor, especially in African context. The methodology includes a qualitative research based on the use of content analysis. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews conducted within four Tunisian pharmaceutical firms. The results show similarities between the firms. Benefits include practical knowledge transfer, learning, joint research, accessing laboratory equipment and infrastructure, training opportunities, hiring graduates or postgraduates. But benefits don’t include securing funds because of the limited pharmaceutical firms’ resources. Moreover, interaction is concentrated in the short term and in the trainee and researchers’ level. This study also indicates that, like other African countries, U-I relations should be supported by political policy. Such policies contribute to involve legislation revision, implementing support mechanisms that enhance U–I interaction and stimulate connections between universities and firms.

Challenges and opportunities of building an entrepreneurial discovery process through university–industry interaction: A Norwegian case study

This study provides new insights into the entrepreneurial role of universities in an entrepreneurial discovery process. Over the past decades, European policies have encouraged universities to identify opportunities and develop new partnerships and connections with society. This analysis focuses on the Vestfold region of Norway, which contains an institutionally rich and specialised electronic industry, supported by a university college. The development of entrepreneurial discovery as a process capability at the regional level is examined using qualitative analysis based on semi-structured interviews. Regional actors developed regional innovation capabilities based on a bottom-up entrepreneurial discovery approach, in which a local university college played an active role. Entrepreneurial discovery capabilities entail a rigorous assessment of the region’s knowledge base, experimentation and the institutionalisation of new collaborative work forms that mobilise industry–university interaction aimed at identifying and facilitating the emergence and growth of new domains. The article highlights the challenges and opportunities of a bottom-up entrepreneurial discovery approach and concludes with policy implications.

Fiction lagging behind or non-fiction defending the indefensible? University–industry (et al.) interaction in science fiction

University–industry interaction has many supporters and some detractors in the scholarly literature. Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy frameworks emphasise interactions between universities and stakeholders other than industry, and the contribution made by these interactions to a range of goals such as environmental sustainability. Given the significance of discourse to shape public opinion, it is important that academic and policy actors convey positive views of university interaction. We investigate whether this is happening by examining representations of university interactions in popular culture. Since public opinion can shape science, our investigation could also suggest new research questions. Our sample includes science fiction novels that won prestigious awards (Hugo, Nebula and Locus) for the genre, from the 1970s to the 2010s. The use of an objective corpus of the literature increases external validity, a methodological novelty in representations of science studies. We show how science fiction, predominantly, is critical of university interactions, reflecting a lack of convincing institutional narratives on their benefits. The apprehensions expressed about interactions with industry or other stakeholders are equivalent. We offer some recommendations for research on STI policy frameworks to incorporate critical views of university–society interaction, including threats to sustainability, and new research questions related to defence of non-disclosure of information for political reasons and conflicts of equity due to the lack of career progression for ‘disengaged’ academics.

KIỂM ĐỊNH THANG ĐO CHẤT LƯỢNG GIÁO DỤC ĐẠI HỌC TỪ SỰ CẢM NHẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN NGÀNH QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH TẠI TP. HỒ CHÍ MINH

This study aims to test the measuring scale of higher education quality from the students’ perspective at universities in Ho Chi Minh city. The study’s results showed that the scale of higher education quality from students’ perspective was explained by six components: (1) curriculum, (2) teaching skills of faculty, (3) interaction between faculty and students, (4) physical facilities, (5) businesses interaction – extracurricular activities, (6) students support services quality. In the above scale components, the business interaction – extracurricular activities scale is a new measuring scale from the research results, the scale of which is composed of the university-industry interaction scale and the extracurricular activities scale. In addition, this study also mentions the scale of student support services quality that previous studies did not mention, a new measureing scale that the author explored through three focus groups. The scale of the components above were tested by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that these scales met the requirements of reliability and validity (unidimensionality, convergent validity, discriminant validity, composite reliability and average variance extracted). Finally, the authors also discussed the research results as well as limitations and further research directions.

University-Industry Relations and Industrial Innovation: Evidence from Brazil

University-industry relations are an important factor for industrial innovation. However, the results of these relationships for the firms remain largely unmeasured. Moreover, the contribution of different types of interactions to fi rm innovativeness is kn own ma inly in th eoretical terms. Departing from a secondary data of Brazilian university-industry interaction survey, also known as “BR survey”, this study employs crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA) to identify how five types of University-industry interactions - training-oriented, service-oriented, diffusion-oriented, d evelopment-oriented, a nd r esearch-oriented - c ombine t o p roduce h igh i nnovation o utput. Th e re sults sh ow th at th e mo st complex interactions - development-oriented and research-oriented - are the only types of interactions that alone lead the firm to high innovati-veness. In contrast, less complex interactions alone are not enough to make the firm innovate beyond the “new-to-the-firm” level and need to be complemented by more complex interaction

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR BRAZILIAN FIRMS IN TERMS OF UNIVERSITY–INDUSTRY INTERACTION, PUBLIC FUNDING AND INNOVATION OUTCOME

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion about firm’s innovation, focusing at university–industry interactions (UII), funding and innovation outcomes. The research analysed the data of 325 Brazilian firms that interacted with universities and/or research centres. Regression models were used to evaluate the impact of public funding, types of interactions and innovation outcomes. In addition, the moderation effect of public funds was tested in different types of interactions. The results show that the university–industry interactions based on the use of the university’s knowledge has a positive and significant relationship with firm’s product innovation, and the use of public funding has a negative and significant relationship with a firm’s innovation intensity. It is relevant to note that there are important specificities of the Brazilian context, such as the innovation-related public funding and its effectiveness for the firm’s innovative activities, which contributes to explaining the outcomes.

Knowledge transfer between universities and smes and regional development. The role of the clusters as communities of practice

Abstract The Exchange of knowledge between universities and SMEs became a source of sustainable competitive advantages. The innovation capacity of SMEs is under pressure for various reasons since knowledge management is more costly and innovation readiness more difficult to be achieved. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) became in this context critical players in the knowledge-based economy to interact with small companies. The traditional functions of universities are the generation of knowledge (research) and its transmission (teaching) are reconsidered in order to better serve the managers. This paper investigate conditions SMEs and universities may better work together, assuming that a pro university-SMEs cooperation behaviour at the level of the SMEs managers and universities is an essential factor of an efficient transfer of knowledge. Evidence of this interaction from development regions of Romania are shown in order to identify emerging cooperation patterns. Another area this paper investigates is the interaction of universities and SMEs when they are bound together in a longer cooperation alliances, in clusters. Actions to develop clusters include universities as central resource. The research intends to review the role of the university in cluster development for Romanian development regions on their struggle to occupy a role in European smart specialization processes. As a main conclusion, the article argues that smart specialization and communities of practice are interconnected concepts enabling innovation processes in university-industry interaction. Knowledge transfer may be more efficient when clusters and universities are interacting on a long-term basis.

University-Industry Interaction as an Element of the University’s «Third Mission»

In the context of the transformation of education, characterized by the rapid obsolescence of knowledge, the increasing role of technological and social innovations, the globalization of the economy and education, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure successful cooperation between universities and business. At the same time, the state gains an advantage due to the rapid transfer of new knowledge, research and innovation, enterprises and organizations increase opportunities for effective development.The aim of the study is to identify the most successful forms of interaction between educational organizations and enterprises, the mechanisms of influence of the University on the development of the region of its location, participation in socio-economic processes. The problem is considered through the prism of the concept of the “third mission” for universities, which involves active interaction of educational organizations with society, including employers. Besides, the authors use the provisions of the theory of stakeholders, which describes the parameters taking into account the interests of various actors in the process of University management.On the example of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov, the article analyzes the existing experience and successful practices of organizing such interaction, as well as the emerging problems. The information base of the study was a survey on the satisfaction of employers with the quality of University graduates’ training, conducted in SAFU in 2019.As findings, the article states the main systemic problems of interaction between universities and the sphere of production such as the lack of coordinated strategies for training in various specialties, discrepancies in understanding the sets of competencies and skills of graduates, the fragmented university-industry interaction in research and development areas, different motivations and values.The authors come to a conclusion that the University must undergo a path of transformation to ensure strategic interaction with business and industry, including the development of a common “entrepreneurial” culture in the team, as well as the expansion of interaction with public institutions and socio-economic actors in the framework of the “third mission”.