University-industry Relationships Research Articles

Building trust in university–industry relations: evidence from six cases of collaboration for research and innovation in Lombardy

ABSTRACT The collaboration between university and industry under the institutional arrangement of the University Third Mission has been widely investigated by scholars and, more recently, with an increasing focus on the importance of trust. In this line of research, based on the study of six cases of collaboration in one of the more economically developed regions of Italy, this article aims at analysing how trust is produced – or constructed – by actors involved in the collaborative relationships to identify different processes, factors, dynamics by which such a construction takes place, shape and content, and to discuss its contribution to the rise and maintenance of such collaborations.

Patent output and patent transfer network in China universities: Moderating roles of absorptive capacity and desorptive capacity

Although absorptive capacity and desorptive capacity has been widely present in university-industry relationships, there has been no research on their potential impact on the relationship between university patent output and university patent transfer network. We constructed datasets of patent applications and patent transfers to firms from 383 universities between 2002 and 2021 in China, and empirically demonstrated the effect of the patent output on university patent transfer network using negative binomial regression models. We also examined the moderating effects of absorptive capacity and desorptive capacity. The results reveal that university patent output positively affects the size and the connection strength of the university patent transfer network. Technology transfer offices and satellite institutions, for desorptive capacity in universities, negatively moderate the relationship between the university patent output and the university patent transfer network, respectively. For absorptive capacity in firms, research and development intensity of new products and the level of research and development personnel input, respectively, have a positively moderate effect on the relationship between the university patent output and the university patent transfer network. Our research provides insights into the dynamics of the university patent transfer network; especially against the backdrop of a sharp increase in university patent output and insufficient development of the university patent transfer network, this study provides evidence to the substitution effect of desorptive capacity in universities and the bidirectional effect of absorptive capacity in firms.

University-Industry Relationships beyond Technology Transfer: the Role of Intangible Knowledge

Abstract This article explores the complexities of intangible knowledge transfer in university- industry collaborations, offering a comprehensive view of the current landscape and its future direction. Using a bibliometric and systematic literature review of 1496 articles and 20 selected studies, the research identifies key trends and patterns. Despite differences between academic and practical domains, the study finds that informal networking and personal interactions facilitate mutually beneficial partnerships, regardless of industry type, firm size, or academic specialization. The paper highlights the crucial role of intangible knowledge transfer platforms in fostering effective collaborations and advocates for streamlined protocols to enhance knowledge exchange between academia and businesses. Introducing the Unity Index, the paper provides a novel tool to analyze key authors and relationships between variables, offering new insights and opportunities for future research. This study emphasizes the critical importance of intangible knowledge transfer in university-industry relationships, addressing gaps often overlooked in traditional analyses.

Measuring the Social and Economic Impact of Universities' Entrepreneurial Activity

Goal: This study introduces an algorithm to sort alumni-founded companies from the public Brazilian Internal Revenue Service (IRS) database. Design/Methodology/Approach: Departing from IRS data and student data from the university, sequential filters are applied to arrive at a final list of alumni-founded companies. Results: The main result of this study is the establishment of the algorithm itself, which emerged after cycles of iterations of analysis and rewriting. To test its reliability, a sample of 1625 alumni was used. The algorithm successfully identified 140 founders of 159 AFC. Founders were heterogeneously distributed throughout the decades analyzed. Companies belonged to different industry sectors and were classified according to their technological intensity, with predominance of middle-low and low intensity. Research limitations/implications: Although the BR-AFC algorithm is applicable to any Brazilian institution, generalization to other countries depends on access to country-specific databases containing data about companies and its partners. Additionally, the final result depends on the reliability of input data and of user decisions about the rigor of its premises. Practical implications: The BR-AFC algorithm can improve measurements of the socioeconomic impact of educational institutions. It points to the formation of entrepreneurs and, as a consequence, institutions can evaluate courses and educational programs and improve curricula. Policymakers and sponsoring institutions can measure return over investment, outcomes of policies to encourage entrepreneurship and rank universities according to novel criteria. Originality/Value: The main contribution to the literature is exploring novel approaches to measuring university-industry relationship. More specifically, it proposes an algorithm to identify the alumni-founded companies of a given university from large country-based databases.

University–industry linkages and agendas for future studies: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis

PurposeThis study aims to theoretically and experimentally investigate the literature on university–industry linkages (UILs) through a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis. Seven research questions were addressed in the present study: (1) descriptive characteristics of the literature on UIL, (2) trends of annual scientific publications on UIL, (3) the most relevant and high-impact sources on UIL, (4) the most globally cited articles on UIL, (5) the most relevant countries on UIL, (6) outcomes of Bradford's Law of Scattering and Lotka's Law of scientific productivity and (7) the trending research areas and avenues for future studies on UIL.Design/methodology/approach Systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis mapping techniques were applied to the present study to analyze 907 articles extracted from the Scopus database. Analysis tools used were Biblioshiny software and VOSviewer software.Findings Findings show that the UIL is a progressively growing discipline with a record of a 5.71% average annual growth rate in scientific production each year from 1970 to 2023. The United States, China and the United Kingdom were the most productive countries in the field of UIL in terms of total scientific production and citations. Academic entrepreneurship, industrial ecology, social network analysis, active learning, engineering education, health economics, public health, university–industry relationships, communication, causal layered analysis and competitiveness are the potential avenues for future researchers in the field of UIL based on the thematic map of keywords analysis.Originality/value This study contributes to the debate on UIL by offering a comprehensive literature review. The findings of the current study will benefit graduates, universities, industries and the community at large.

A bibliometric review of research on academic engagement, 1978–2021

For centuries, the collaboration between higher education and industry (or academic engagement) has become an exciting topic for all related stakeholders, such as researchers, policymakers, or entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, there has yet to be any comprehensive understanding of the extant literature on this topic. Motivated by this gap, this study applies the bibliometric method to review all related documents of academic engagement indexed in the Scopus database between 1978 and 2021. The results showed that the period from 2018 to 2021 identified itself as a golden era with the palpable attention of scholars who contributed to approximately 80% of the related topic. The countries ranked in the top five with dominant publications include the US, the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany. The co-word analysis also recognized technology transfer, research and development, and entrepreneurial university and university-industry relations as the key topics focused on academic engagement works of literature.

Internship in the impasse of the duality of theory and practice: representation, imitation, compatibility, and tension in the university-industry relationship

ABSTRACT Internship is one of the higher education approaches to meeting society’s expectations about the skills and competencies of the graduates. Typically, what is practiced in organizations and industries as internship, more than anything reflects a fundamentalist concept in which the duality of theory and practice is taken for granted. Through a post-qualitative analysis informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s ontologies, this article offers a new conceptual approach to internship and the transition university-to-workplace program. In this article, through three internship scenarios and the circumstances within them, we have identified the structures and discourses that show the consequences of conducting internships according to the fundamentalist approach. Informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s ontologies and through disrupting the theory and practice dichotomy, we offer a new concept for internship and transition from higher education to the workplace that is creative, pluralistic, and multifaceted.

Technology Development Zones as a Form of University–Industry Relations: A Multiple-Case Study

Technology Development Zones as a Form of University–Industry Relations: A Multiple-Case Study

University Technology Transfer from a Knowledge-Flow Approach—Systematic Literature Review

This study aims to review and synthesize the rapidly evolving literature on technology transfer from universities, and the concepts and models included in it, from a knowledge-flow approach to find the factors contributing to its performance. This article provides a perspective on recent work, focusing on empirical studies on technology transfer in universities conducted in the last 32 years from a knowledge-based vision. The study was carried out from a systematic literature review in the Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and SpringerLink databases on 135 articles selected and evaluated by peers from critical surveillance factors such as technology transfer, knowledge flow, and university–industry relationship, among others. It was possible to identify 75 factors that, from a knowledge-based vision and specifically from a knowledge-flow approach, permit and contribute to the performance of technology transfer generated from research processes in universities. We classified studies into four categories according to their approaches, each with their dimensions and factors: management of knowledge, resources and capabilities, management of technological transfer, and the university–industry relationship. This classification permitted not only identification but also the systematization of the different factors and related authors that, from a knowledge-flow approach, contribute to the performance of technological transfers in universities, reflecting their efficiency and effectiveness. In this respect, absorption capacity and open innovation are topics which are worthy of exploration.

A QCA Analysis of Knowledge Co-Creation Based on University–Industry Relationships

This research aims to identify typologies of companies willing to cooperate with universities to foster knowledge co-creation and ease knowledge transfer to students within courses, training, communities of practises, etc., regardless of the business sector they are active in. To implement the research scope, we rely on the qualitative comparative analysis method (QCA). Interactions between causal factors within the university–industry relations, and knowledge co-creation have been examined. The results obtained indicate two typologies. Type 1 includes companies oriented towards supporting interactions with universities based on education, research, student placements, training, and community services such as consultancy, and product development. These acknowledge both the necessity of creating platforms to establish more ties with universities and the importance of alumni connections to develop effective campus management. Type 2 includes companies that are not interested in understanding or supporting the mission of universities in society, not developing ties with universities, and generating only a superficial interaction, which hinders their involvement in the creation of knowledge with universities. From a managerial perspective, this paper highlights the relationship between universities and industry and how this could contribute to increased resilience for a society facing unexpected challenges, such as the global crisis related to COVID-19 and the present state of international political instability.

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.

Metaphors of University-Industry Relations: Interpretations on Technology Development Zones Unveiled

The purpose of the study is to examine metaphors that are used to explain university-industry relations. Metaphors are a lucrative qualitative tool in organizational analysis because extracting and interpreting metaphors that are used by participants in an organization can not only allow researchers to access hidden perceptions or feelings of the participants but also helps them gain insights about a key organization of university-industry relations: Technology Development Zones (TDZ). In this multiple-case study, 20 participants were involved from two universities and an institute of high technology, and their embedded TDZs in Turkey. Participants are high-rank manager-academics, faculty affiliated with university-industry relations, high-rank managers from TDZs and those of firms inside these TDZs. In order to collect data, semi-structured interviews were used in the study. Results from a content analysis of within-case and cross-case data from the three cases in the study showed that participants use superordinate themes of positive and negative metaphors to explain university industry relations. The positive metaphors superordinate theme involves the metaphors of interface, machine, bars district, showcase, and plants, while the negative metaphors superordinate theme includes zombie, babies, and real-estate metaphors. Based on the participants’ descriptions of these metaphors and their justification for their use, some conclusions were made on the participants’ evaluations of the university-industry relations phenomenon, which is the focus of the study.

Conceptualising the Role of the UAE Innovation Strategy in University-Industry knowledge Diffusion Process

Universities are considered one of the primary sources of knowledge and an essential component of the triple helix theory. They fuel the industries with the required expertise and pool of resources to operate efficiently. Moreover, entrepreneurial universities successfully contributed to regional development and employment growth by supporting entrepreneurial activities and incubation programmes. Thus, university-industry collaboration is vital for enhancing knowledge-based industries' knowledge diffusion as well as the regional innovation atmospheres. On the other hand, countries and regional authorities strive to stimulate their regional development by encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship activities. For example, the UAE announced its 2015 innovation strategy that focused on seven industries: education, technology, renewable energy, transportation, education, health, water, and space. The strategy stressed the role of universities R & R&D, first-class research, and promoting incubation services as one of the country's main innovation enablers. Thus, universities, scholars and industry should concentrate on the identified sectors to achieve the strategic innovation goals. This work aims to conceptualise and test the relationship and collaboration between industry and universities in the UAE and the impact of the innovation strategy on this relationship. Therefore, we critically analyse literature on the university-industry relationship and connect it with the UAE innovation strategy that resulted in a conceptual university-industry relationship model where the innovation strategy and UAE government act as a moderator of this relationship. The initial results show that the conceptual model includes research and curriculum collaboration. Research collaboration includes joint research, research fund, commercialisation of the research output, while curriculum collaboration includes the programmes and courses updates and joint training programmes. The developed model is still in its early stage of development and requires further updates based on interviews with the HEIs researchers and the survey results.

The transfer of technology from the organizational viewpoint

The transfer of technology from the organizational viewpoint

Trends of Shifting Role of University Education towards University–Industry Relations

The increasing nature of global knowledge has made higher education move to a closer relationship with the industries. Universities in India have been given paramount importance for the country’s development; hence, recommendations were forwarded by various educational commissions and policies to focus on university–industry relations (UIR). The article attempts to understand UIR by highlighting its opportunities and challenges. The present article studied the recommendation of policy documents of higher education in India on UIR in the post-independence period, focusing on the roles of university education. The documents in this article include the reports of various educational commissions, namely the University Education Commission 1948–49, the Education Commission of 1964–66 and the National Knowledge Commission of 2005 and also the documents of significant educational policies of India, namely the National Policy on Education 1968 , National Policy on Education 1986 and National Education Policy 2020. Documents analysis as a method was used to understand the recommendation on UIR. The growing concern of university–industry collaboration can be seen in policy documents.

Higher education and innovation as factors of competitiveness in four Latin American countries

This work establishes the relationship between competitiveness and innovation in higher education overall competitiveness in 4 Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Data are from the World Competitiveness Report prepared annually by the World Economic Forum from 2007 to 2013, the latter year saw 148 countries ranked from 1 to 148, 1 being the most competitive and less competitive 148. Basic, efficiency and innovation: overall competitiveness and three groups of factors are analyzed. After working with pillar 5, higher education and training and the post 12, innovation; relationships between factors, pillars and components for the four countries are established. The analysis shows that Chile has increased competitiveness, based on basic and efficiency factors, occupies on average, 32nd in both cases. Brazil and Mexico are economies that show similarities in strength efficiency factors and weakness in the basic factors. Argentina appears behind his best behavior manifests itself in innovation. The competitiveness of the five pillar in the quality of school management, where the four countries rank well. Another element that has good rating is the enrollment of the university system and the local availability of research. But this pillar also has deformities, as education in math and science behind the four countries listed, place beyond. Regarding the pillar of innovation, the best performances have Brazil, sustained competitiveness in innovation capacity in expenditure on business R & D and in a good university industry relationship. Argentina despite dynamism present in this pillar, has one major drawback is the low government consumption of high-tech goods in 2013 was in place 140.

A Framework to Manage University–Industry Technology Transfer

This paper focuses on university–industry relationships, and the value in such linkages that motivates firms to choose a particular mode to acquire university-generated research output. We combined insights from literature review and 15 exploratory interviews of multiple stakeholders, and developed a framework to examine university–industry linkages. We grounded our framework on the social exchange theory (SET) and quadruple helix concept. It proposes university climate readiness (e.g. incentive system), firm climate readiness (e.g. managers’ attitude toward academic research), and exchange readiness (e.g. a firm’s absorptive capacity) as antecedents to science-business collaboration, coupled with environmental readiness factors (e.g. unique socio-cultural setting in developing economies) as moderating variables. The framework highlights (1) functional value (i.e. technology pricing, quality, and applicability) and (2) relational value (i.e. trust between academia and industry) in the said relationship. The framework further provides a basis for practitioners to arrive at a suitable university-developed technology transfer mode (e.g. patent licensing, research services, and research partnerships).

The attraction of talent through international student mobility patterns and triple helix system: evidence from OECD countries for triple helix system

In the new century of the knowledge economy, highly trained human capital is anticipated to stimulate economic growth, becoming one of the grounds for competition – the “war for talent.” The business sector, higher education and talent are all crucially connected. Integration into international knowledge networks may be enhanced by the country’s domestic triple helix. International knowledge transfer, national innovation systems and national triple helix systems draw international talent flows because of their economic benefits. To examine a nation’s ability to draw talent, we utilise a two-stage error correction (EC2SLS) panel model for OECD countries between the years 2013 and 2017. We assume that it is influenced by several innovative and technological aspects, including the triple helix, international student mobility and other factors. Results indicate that when we compare low-middle-income nations with high-income countries, the attraction of talent may alter when taking into account university–industry relationships. It has been observed that low-middle-income countries need to exert more effort in university–industry collaborations than high-income ones to recruit more talent. Evidence suggests that nations seeking to recruit talent should target international students. In addition, nations may focus on public institutions, the labour market and innovation. Governments and companies should be proactive in the competition for international talent, the results show. These results add clarity to the debate over how international student mobility affects knowledge creation and emphasise the significance of university–industry collaboration in luring talent to nations with disparate income levels.

A multilayered perspective on entrepreneurial universities: looking into the dynamics of joint university-industry labs

In this article we pay attention to the different analytical layers that compose the managerial context of university-industry relationships – a cornerstone of entrepreneurial universities. Specifically, we address the dynamics of joint university-industry laboratories, a typical example of high-quality engagement between academia and industry. Joint university-industry laboratories are understood as long term joint undertakings shared by universities and industry targeted at generating value for all parties involved through various channels. Given the different missions of universities and industry, joint laboratories inherit special challenges for management. Our exploration therefore outlines four complementary dimensions of interest in this context: the macro environment, university-level institutional challenges, strategic context and, lastly, we deal with individual-level aspects when analyzing identity issues involved in the dynamics of joint university-industry labs. A research agenda is derived from these explorations.

Using Science, Technology, and Innovation (Sti); in Achieving Sustainable Development in Developing Countries (Dcs)

University-industry relations need to be strengthened; several institutions have technology transfer offices that assist in the formation of spin-off companies. On inventions and technologies, different commercialization routes, the functions of technology transfer offices, and diverse organizational structures will be examined. By showing current innovation and technology, this paper contributes to attaining sustainable development for developed nations by academic and agricultural industry report, development, and commercialization operations. This research aims to analyses and completely examine the scientific and technical literacy approaches for sustainable development in industrialized nations. The evident necessity of sustainable development on supporting scientific and technical advancement in the world's "developed," "developing," and "under-developed" countries is obvious. In this research, we look at how most countries maintain scientific and technical progress. The study also looked at the ideas that underpin the implementation of scientific and technical literacy, with a focus on sustainable development. As a result, proposals on how the Federal government or other agencies may promote sustainable interms of science, technology, including innovation were made.