University-industry Research Collaboration Research Articles

Patterns and trends of university-industry research collaboration in Ghana between 2011 and 2020

Purpose The ranking of universities and other research-intensive institutions in global ranking systems is based on numerous indicators, including number of articles with external collaboration, number of articles with international collaboration, number of articles with industry collaboration as well as co-patents with industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine university–industry research collaboration in Ghana, with the aim of exploring the relationship between the research output collaborations in the top four universities in Ghana and industry across different geographical scales. Design/methodology/approach This study’s data was obtained from the SciVal database, which drawn its data from the Scopus bibliographic and citation database. The bibliographic and citation data were extracted using a search of the publications affiliated to the University of Ghana, for the period 2011–2020. Findings Key findings demonstrate a constant rise in the number of research publications by the selected universities over time. Research collaboration intensity in the selected universities in terms of co-authored publications was higher as compared to single-authored publications. University–industry research co-authorships were, however, lower when compared to university–university research co-authorships. The university–industry research co-authorships occurred mostly with Europe, Asia-Pacific and North American-based institutions as opposed to African-based institutions. In Ghana, four industry-based institutions were engaged in intensive research with the selected universities. Originality/value This study demonstrates that, for each selected university, it is possible to measure the performance of individual universities in both intra-regional and international collaboration. Such results may be useful in informing policy as well as merit-based public funding of universities in Ghana.

A Conceptual Framework Of The Mediating Role Of Researchers’ Commitment To The Success Of University- Industry Research Collaboration

The Triple Helix model acknowledges that the relationship between the university and industry is essential for the economy and innovation of a nation. Consequently, the government has provided numerous initiatives to encourage academic participation in joint research projects with industry. The university-industry collaboration will benefit not only the university and industry but also contribute significantly to the country and society through the development of innovative ideas and products. However, the number of research collaborations is still limited, and establishing a successful collaboration is difficult. Many collaboration projects find it difficult to achieve the objectives. Due to this issue, this study attempts to identify factors contributing to successful research collaborations using researchers’ commitment as a mediator. The success factors can assist in recognising the collaboration stakeholders (university, industry, and government) and enhancing the current practices in university-industry research collaboration in Malaysia. This enhances the effectiveness of the collaboration project, which contributes to a significant impact on the stakeholders involved.

Teaching benefits of multi-helix university-industry research collaborations: Towards a holistic framework

Despite universities' effort towards contributing to society and economy through multi-helix or multi-party university-industry research collaborations (UIRCs) involving industry, government and community organisations, the impact of such activities on teaching remains unclear. This paper aims to fill this research lacuna. Using a multiple case study approach, the paper provides evidence from seven multi-helix UIRCs taking place in five Indian universities. We first unveil the different roles played by individual actors from the collaborating partner organisations involved in the multi-helix UIRCs, specifically industry scientists (from the collaborating partner company), funding administrators (from the governmental funding body that sponsors the collaboration), community representatives (from the collaborating community organisation) and UIRC-affiliated academics involved in the teaching activities of the collaborating university. Then, we explain various individual-level and organisational-level conditions that enable and constrain these actors' involvement in teaching, and ultimately their efficacy. These findings help us develop a holistic framework for involving UIRC actors in teaching at partner universities.

Institutional logics in the open science practices of university–industry research collaboration

Abstract As an emerging agenda in science and public policy discourse, the open science (OS) movement has affected university–industry research collaboration (UIRC) including normative changes concerning actors’ value and belief systems. Thus, the following questions have become pertinent: what are the norms and beliefs of key actors engaged in UIRC regarding OS practices? How have the norms and beliefs led to tensions in UIRC and dynamics facilitating or impeding OS? This study explores these questions through two case studies by applying institutional logics theory as an analytical lens. Through analysing case studies concerning UIRC in Finland, a pioneer in the global OS movement, six institutional logics that are either pro- or contra-OS practices were identified: the state, market, corporation, profession, traditional trust–based community and sustainability-based community logics. The strongest tensions are between the state and market logics and between the profession and market logics. In the end of the study, recommendations are solicited for OS policymakers and practitioners based on the research findings.

Analysis of the relationship between “business-science” coopetition and intellectual property receipts

The study actualizes the issue of cooperation between business and science on the way to the commercialization of innovations in modern conditions. A hypothesis is put forward regarding the relationship between the level of cooperation between industry and science (based on the University-Industry Research Collaboration indicator within the Global Innovation Index) and the income from intellectual property. Therefore, the article aims to confirm the existence and establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the level of cooperation between business and science and the amount of income from intellectual property. A bibliometric analysis is carried out at the first stage to confirm the hypothesis, and the main directions of interdisciplinary research related to this issue are highlighted. In the second stage, the research information base is formed based on the statistical data of the World Intellectual Property Organization for a sample of 10 countries – leaders according to the Global Innovation Index of 2022 for the last 10 years (2013-2022). In the third stage, a correlation analysis is carried out to confirm a relationship’s existence and determine its statistical significance, nature and strength. At the fourth stage, a vector autoregression is constructed, based on the results of which Granger testing for cause-and-effect relationships is performed to determine the influence direction between the studied indicators. It is established that the level of cooperation between business and science is the cause and affects the amount of income from intellectual property in 6 of the 8 countries of the sample, in which the cause-and-effect relationship between the studied indicators was confirmed and established; the amount of income from intellectual property is the cause and affects the level of cooperation between business and science in 5 of the 8 countries of the sample, in which the cause-and-effect relationship between the studied indicators was confirmed. At the same time, in 3 out of 8 countries of the sample, in which the cause-and-effect relationship between the studied indicators was confirmed, a two-way influence was found. Accordingly, it is substantiated that the level of cooperation between business and science directly and positively affects the income from intellectual property. Therefore, the strengthening of collaboration between industry and science will contribute to the increase in the amount of income from intellectual property. In turn, the revenue volume from the intellectual property will also contribute to improving and developing cooperation between business and science. The obtained results can be helpful for scientists in further research in related scientific areas and for representatives of the business community, government officials and other persons interested in this issue.

Intellectual Capital: A System Thinking Analysis in Revamping the Exchanging Information in University-Industry Research Collaboration

University-industry research collaboration (UIRC) is a major source for research, innovations and sustainable economic growth. Despite the extensive evidence on the importance of such collaboration in developed and developing countries, literature related to the strengthening of this collaboration, along with its innovation performance, is still scarce. Scholars believe that the impact of exchanging information has a vigorous influence on researcher’s innovative activities as well as research and innovations. Moreover, to flatten the flow of exchanging information between researchers, it is mandatory to refurbish human capital in conjunction with intellectual capital, along with their reinforcing factors i.e., communication and networking, respectively. In this paper, we evaluate the influence of human capital and intellectual capital along with their corresponding reinforcing factors on exchanging information using the system thinking method. Evidence from UIRC in Malaysia provides empirical corroboration that intellectual capital along with its reinforcing factors has a significant influence on exchanging information. Thus, the findings of this research suggest that intensifying the capabilities of intellectual capital with a reinforcing effect can sustain the circulation of exchanging information.

Using Photography to Capture Young People’s Views About Community and Local Service Delivery

ABSTRACT Youth offending has received significant attention in recent years in Queensland and across Australia. While the voices of young people who are offending or at risk of offending are evident in some studies, other reports do not identify them as key stakeholders. A recent university–industry research collaboration sought to prioritise the voices of young people engaging with The Lighthouse, a diversionary service within Townsville Aboriginal and Islander Heath Services (TAIHS), through the use of qualitative, photovoice methods. The primary aim of this photovoice project was to capture the perceptions and needs of young people currently at risk of offending in order to help shape local service delivery. A thematic analysis enabled the identification of four key themes. Participants felt unsafe and under surveillance in public spaces; they wanted more amenities where they could enjoy being in the community with their peers; they reported that peers and family were very important to them; and they appreciated services on offer at The Lighthouse and acknowledged these services supported behavioural change. The findings provide a unique contribution to policy and service delivery focused on young people at risk of offending and to the literature on the use of photovoice methodologies. IMPLICATIONS Photovoice is a creative, participatory method that value adds to research outcomes through participant skill development. Young people participating in, or at risk of, offending can contribute to research, in turn informing policy and practice to better meet their needs. Seeing through the eyes of young people provides a unique perspective on community inclusion, safe spaces, and transformative practice.

Innovation intermediaries for university-industry R&D collaboration: evidence from science parks in Thailand

This paper investigates how science parks (SPs) act as innovation intermediaries to facilitate university-industry research and development (U-I R&D) collaboration and how the SPs’ roles influence the collaboration effectiveness. Data was collected from documents and interviews with 52 participants in 19 collaboration projects across four SPs in northern Thailand. This data is unique because it includes the perspectives of the SPs’ project managers as well as those of the university researchers, firm owners and managers in a developing economy context. Our findings show that the SPs performed consulting, brokering, mediating, and providing resource roles and thereby enhanced the attributes of researchers, firms, relationships between partners and collaboration projects, to ultimately improve the success of the collaborations. The SPs in Thailand are not only property-based organisations that provide space and facilities for firms to locate in. It is the SPs’ active involvement in the U-I R&D collaboration that contributes to its effectiveness. SPs in a developing economy thus evolve their roles to offer greater support to firms in low-tech industries. We also offer evidence of trade-off effects and show how the SPs’ roles and attributes of firms, researchers and relationships can substitute for one another to create effective U-I R&D collaborations.

Drivers of academic engagement in public–private research collaboration: an empirical study

University-industry research collaboration is one of the major research policy priorities of advanced economies. In this study, we try to identify the main drivers that could influence the propensity of academics to engage in research collaborations with the private sector, in order to better inform policies and initiatives to foster such collaborations. At this purpose, we apply an inferential model to a dataset of 32,792 Italian professors in order to analyze the relative impact of individual and contextual factors affecting the propensity of academics to engage in collaboration with industry, at overall level and across disciplines. The outcomes reveal that the typical profile of the professor collaborating with industry is a male under age 40, full professor, very high performer, with highly diversified research, and who has a certain tradition in collaborating with industry. This professor is likely to be part of a staff used to collaborating with industry, in a small university, typically a polytechnic, located in the north of the country.

Asymmetries between partners and the success of university-industry research collaborations

Despite the common belief that orientation asymmetry—fundamental differences in the goals and expectations between partners—constitutes a major barrier to successful collaboration, empirical evidence on how orientation asymmetry impacts university-industry collaboration is rare. We seek to understand the nature and impact of orientation asymmetry by conducting a mixed-method study of the research collaborations between a Big Pharma and its academic partners. Our interviews reveal critical asymmetries between partners, concerning not only different orientations, but also different perceptions of conflict. Building on these qualitative findings, we conduct a multi-wave, multi-source survey study to unpack the relationships between orientation asymmetry, conflict within collaboration teams, conflict perception asymmetry, and different types of collaboration success. We contribute to the literature on university-industry collaborations by providing a much-needed comparison of the perspectives from both sides of the collaboration and developing a nuanced understanding of the dynamics within collaboration project teams. We discuss the implications of our findings for researchers, managers, and policymakers.

Blended system thinking approach to strengthen the education and training in university-industry research collaboration

ABSTRACT University-industry research collaboration (UIRC) is a major source for research and innovations and economic growth. Despite the extensive evidence on the importance of such collaboration in developed and developing countries, the literature related to strengthen such collaboration along with its innovation performance is still scarce. Scholars believed that the impact of education and training on researchers have a vigorous influence on research and innovations. Moreover, to enhance the competencies of education and training on researchers, it is mandatory to refurbish education and skills system in conjunction with technological infrastructure system along with their reinforcing factors i.e. knowledge sharing and research and development cooperation, respectively. In this paper, we evaluate the influence of education and skills and technological infrastructure system along with their corresponding reinforcing factors in the blended system thinking method to strengthen education and training. Evidence from UIRC in Malaysia provides empirical corroboration that the role of education and skills system and technological infrastructure system along with their reinforcing factors have a positive influence on education and training. Thus, the findings of this research suggest that intensifying the quality of education and skills system and technological infrastructure system with the reinforcing effect can enhance the effectiveness of education and training.

Monopoly Spotting: The Management of Openness in University-Industry Research Collaborations

Industry and universities engage in collaborative research often without a clear understanding of how open the research results should be. The contractual terms of the research project document agreed on openness. The terms also decide if access through licensing will be exclusive to a few, or available for the many in open innovation. However, collaborative research agreements are complicated with entangled terms. We applied a novel method for analysing such agreements on 484 publicly sponsored projects in different industries. Placing the projects in the method’s two-by-two matrix, we found that around 20 per cent of the projects, across all industries, have agreements that allow knowledge monopolies to form. We find a positive association between the openness of the research results and the projects that are climate and transport-related. For organisations, research managers and policymakers, the method can be used on a single project or a portfolio of collaborative projects to better align with research policy.

Attitude Survey of the Technical College (KOSEN) Student Concerned with University-industry Research Collaboration Local Brands Products Development

Attitude Survey of the Technical College (KOSEN) Student Concerned with University-industry Research Collaboration Local Brands Products Development

(Invited) Toward the Future Fuel Cell -Challenge for 2040-

Fuel Cell Vehicle became commercially available in 2014. The domestic sales volume of accumulation arrived at approximately 3,000, and the hydrogen stations also spread more than 100 places. On the other hand, the residential fuel cell system "ENE-FARM" commercialized in 2009 breaks through 270,000 accumulation, and spread steadily. It may be said that the step to the spread of FCV and ENE-FARM which led the world was not only the effort of the individual companies but also big result of the precise and extensive action by government supports and the university-industry research collaboration. They have continued activities, for example formulation of the road map, research and development, and demonstration test, for more than ten years since 2000. In “The Strategic Road Map for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells,” as for the accumulation sales target of FCV is 800,000 vehicles in 2030 and 200,000 vehicles in 2025. For the ENE-FARM, it is 5,300,000 units in 2030. Also, new use expansion of fuel cells mainly on the mobility is declared. Research and development for the realization of fuel cell which has high performance, high durability and low cost serve a vital role in. In advance of the development of such fuel cell technology, the challenging target for stack and elemental technology has been set in “NEDO's Technology Development Roadmap 2017” for vehicle type expansion of FCV and the use expansion to other mobility. Although it opened the door of the practical use by the steady action of public and private sectors, substantiation of these technical targets becomes indispensable for the high popularization and expansion use area such as the statement above. This report clarified performance target of the Fuel Cell Stack in 2040 to realize NEDO's Technology Development Roadmap 2017. The aims are the cell performance of 1.1 V at 0.2 A/cm2 and 0.85 V at 4.4 A/cm2. In addition, by the test calculation using the best characteristic value among various materials reported in past articles,1‒ 10 showed that accomplishment of the target in 2040 would be difficult. However, calculation using the maximum value which could be expected theoretically showed that this target value could be realized. Hopefully, this report will help researchers who challenge future issues of the fuel cell and realizing the challenging targets.

The Research Collaboration Paradox: A Tale of Two Governance Narratives in an Australian Innovation Setting

AbstractAustralian government policy aims to exploit university–industry research collaboration to transform the nation from a ‘lucky’ country enjoying the riches of agribusiness and resource exploitation, to a ‘clever’ country, exporting ingenuity and innovation globally. The Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program has operated for more than a quarter of a century, but successive modifications demonstrate an inherent tension between two governance narratives pertaining to university–industry collaboration. This brief discussion looks at how the gradual privileging of one of these two narratives over time could potentially compromise genuine innovation‐producing collaboration. Policy makers therefore need to find ways to reconcile these two narratives.

The relevance of inter-personal ties and inter-organizational tie strength for outcomes of research collaborations in South Korea

Inter-personal ties have long been recognized as relevant not only for interaction between individuals, but also for knowledge transfer and other important outcomes of business activities. This applies in particular to East Asian countries such as South Korea where informal social networks are widely prevalent in business and society. However, less is known about their role in inter-organizational collaboration efforts, such as research collaborations. This exploratory study examines the relevance of inter-personal ties and inter-organizational tie strength for interaction quality and outcomes of research collaborations in South Korea. Two types of research collaborations are studied: new product development (NPD) collaborations between companies and university-industry research collaborations (UICs). Inter-personal ties are found in a majority of both types of collaborations being studied. However, whereas inter-organizational tie strength is positively related to outcomes of these research collaborations, inter-personal ties are not. Managers should thus not primarily rely on inter-personal ties for partner selection and the management of research collaborations.

University-industry research collaboration in the Brazilian oil industry: the case of Petrobras

Este artigo analisa a colaboração em pesquisa entre a empresa estatal petrolífera brasileira, Petrobras, e universidades no período de 1980 a 2014. Apesar da importância da interação universidade-empresa na indústria de petróleo brasileira, há poucos estudos temporalmente abrangentes sobre o tema. Este trabalho ajuda a preencher uma lacuna na literatura, provendo dados comparativos de longo prazo sobre a colaboração em pesquisa entre a Petrobras e universidades. Baseando-se nas publicações da Petrobras em coautoria com universidades, são analisadas as mudanças na intensidade e orientação geográfica da colaboração, no nível de relação interorganizacional e na base de conhecimentos da empresa. Além disso, o trabalho também aborda os efeitos da recente política de financiamento à pesquisa e desenvolvimento na interação. Os resultados mostram uma crescente interação entre a Petrobras e as universidades brasileiras, levando a um alargamento da rede de colaborações científicas da empresa e reforçando sua base de conhecimentos.

New development: Towards a collaborative competency framework to enhance public value in university– industry collaboration

Despite the increasing attention paid to university–industry research collaborations (UICs) to drive national innovation agendas, little is known about to what degree the collaborative competence of participants is considered before the award of contracts. This article proposes that a definition of collaborative competence is required, that collaborative competence should be acknowledged when evaluating UIC proposals, and that an evaluative framework for collaborative competence is needed to enhance public value outcomes for UICs.

The Roadmap for Enhancing University–Industry Research Collaboration in India

In this age of technology-led development and stiff international competition over Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), developing countries, with their limited financial capabilities, face the challenge of creating appropriate environment that could facilitate the creation and commercialisation of technologies. The recognition of poor scientific outputs as a hindrance to the growth of domestic industry has brought research on the development agenda. This article focuses on university–industry research collaborations as one of the ways to kick-start innovation-led economic growth in India. It explores the evolution of relevant policy paradigm in India and presents the relevant highlights of National IPR Policy 2016. It identifies the impediments in the way of creative university–industry collaborations and offers solutions to attain optimum synergy between the academia and industry.

The changing bases of mutual trust formation in inter-organizational relationships: A dyadic study of university-industry research collaborations

We examine how trust in inter-organizational relationships develops over time. Specifically, we study the moderating effect of relationship maturity with various trust bases in the context of university-industry (UI) research collaborations. Examining trust formation with dyadic data allows us to take into account that partners' perceptions of relationship factors are not independent of each other's actions. We adopt the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) for the analysis of data on 98 matched pairs of recent UI research collaborations and find that relationship maturity moderates the associations of reciprocal communication and decision process similarity with trust. The results further indicate that mutual trust formation is also influenced by the other partners' perceptions of relationship factors. The findings suggest UI research partners can develop and maintain a trustful collaboration through reciprocal communication and, in the long term, by converging towards similar decision making processes.