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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the academic side of university–firm linkages, reporting the results of research (called the “BR Survey”, a primary database) conducted in Brazil with leaders of research groups that interacted with firms. The authors analysed the answers from 662 research groups (from both universities and research institutes) to investigate whether the intensity of private funds affects the results of the interactions. The main intent is to answer the following question: Is there a difference between funding sources and the type of results achieved by research groups when interacting with firms?

To verify the impact of some variables on the perception of the main results of university–firm interactions, highlighting the impact of funding sources, the authors present a Logit Model defined with binary dependent variables. The null value is categorized as a “scientific result” (new scientific discoveries and research projects; publications, theses and dissertations; human resources’ and students’ education) and the value 1 is classified as an “innovative/technological result” (new products, artefacts and processes; improvement of industrial products and processes; patents, software, design and spin-off firms).

The authors found that the modes of interaction (relationship types) and some knowledge transfer channels, besides the number of interactions with firms, have statistically significant coefficients, so their values present different impacts on the results of the interaction. The results suggest that the Brazilian innovation policy towards a more active and entrepreneurial role of universities is fostering innovative/technological results from university–firm interactions.

The originality of the study lies on the results found that given the fact that private funding sources do not affect the conventional mission of Brazilian universities – teaching and research – university research groups should be even more incentivized to search for private funds to carry out their research. This may be a solution to the public fund scarcity and may help in reducing the historical distance between universities and firms in Brazil.

This 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.

The 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.

The 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.

The 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.

This 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.

By 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.

This paper aims to research how technology transfer occurs, based on the Schumpeterian approach to innovation trilogy focusing on the interaction between the university and the company.

The methodology used for this study was the analysis of two cases with an exploratory and qualitative approach. The case study subjects were two Brazilian universities: University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS). Semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection technique, whereas content analysis was used as the analysis technique.

The main results showed the need of companies and universities to understand that working in collaborative technology research contributes to the transformation of applied research into technological innovations that can transform society.

The research’s limitations were the unfeasibility of studying the government helix, the lack of clear and established processes within universities so that a comparison between the cases would be possible and the lack of access to technology contracts, as they are considered confidential. In addition, the use of two cases is considered a limitation, as it is not possible to generalize the conclusions pointed out by the study.

With this research, the authors were able to conclude that the university–industry interaction process has been improving, but it still needs to advance in organizational aspects. Some of the aspects to be considered are the adjustments for the institutions’ internal policies, the existing negotiations, the researchers’ behavior regarding the dissemination of the innovation culture and the performance of the technological innovation centers, which gradually are being trained to work in the market as well as in the university. It is necessary that primarily companies and universities understand that they must join efforts in collaborative technological research, so that the financial resources invested are not only accepted as published articles in qualified journals but also turn into technological innovations accepted by the market. All this investment must return as new products, services and technologies that generate local, regional, national and even international impact, implementing new types of businesses and new markets and yielding an economic impact in the country, thus generating innovation and social well-being.

Engineering is a powerful instrument for promoting the social and economic development of nations. Its enhancement is a strategic element to accelerate Brazil’s progress. This paper aims to present a new perspective on the topic of “Engineering and Development in Brazil, Challenges and Prospects” (Guimarães et al., 2007). Its goal is to discuss the need for restructuring the Brazilian system for research, development and innovation (RD&I) and the training of human resources in engineering in the country.

This article is designed to discuss the relations between the performance of the industrial sector and the maturation of engineering in Brazil by looking at the national scientific production in the area in comparison to the world production and to countries (South Korea and The Netherlands). Finally, in terms of training human resources, the Brazilian study abroad program Science without Borders program is discussed in the article as an important tool for the qualification of engineering students in Brazil.

A few of the main findings in this research are as follows: despite being among the top 20 countries in scientific production in Engineering, Brazil still lacks turning this scientific-technological knowledge into products and patents; Brazilian universities and research institutes must build interorganizational collaborations with the industrial sector to increase innovation in the field of engineering; The distribution of the investment in RD&I in engineering must be strategically distributed among its various fields, taking into account national strategies and the technological interrelations between them. The article concludes that engineering is a powerful instrument for promoting a country’s social development while offering indications about Brazilian strategic orientation in the development of engineering.

Despite already being well known that engineering is a powerful instrument for promoting a country’s social development, this article innovates by associating academic scientific production in engineering to other variables related to economic development, such as gross domestic product, human development index, industrial and manufactured production and the filing of patents. It comes at an important moment when the Brazilian Government is discussing new strategies to increase social and economic development in the country while controlling for the investment in RD&I. Therefore, it is the right moment to discuss national policies in science, technology and innovation, especially in the area of engineering.

The purpose of this paper is to assess how technology transfer offices (TTOs) of a public university of the state of São Paulo use patent valuation methods in the process of using developed technology value and transferring technology to industry.

This study is an exploratory qualitative investigation based on a case study conducted in a public university in the state of São Paulo. The university has a TTO and an internal structure for technology transfer. In-depth interviews were conducted with the TTO manager about patent valuation and the answers given were analysed.

The results on how TTOs use patent valuation methods in the process of assigning value to technology indicate which factors facilitate and which factors hinder the valuation of patents in technologies developed at universities.

The possible lack of data disclosure due to confidentiality regarding royalties and trading fees makes further comparisons between Brazilian public universities difficult. Therefore, this study recommends that further studies on patent valuation and technology transfer process at private universities, research institutes and public and private companies should be performed.

In the practice, this study contributes to companies and TTOs by increasing their synergies in licensing negotiations, as well as by reducing the gap of information, between the business parties for assignment and transfer of technologies. With regard to theoretical contribution, this study can cite advances in the methods to measure the financial benefits arising from the valuation of technologies embedded in the patents.

Owing to the lack of research on the methods of valuation used by TTOs of Brazilian universities, the present study can be useful in serving as a theoretical source for future research and in supporting future TTO negotiations in the process of transferring technologies to productive industry.

In Brazil, over 4.7 million women enrolled in university in the year 2017. However, Brazilian women have been consistently overrepresented in humanities and care majors and underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Given that observed gender differences in math-intensive fields have lasting effects on gender inequality in the labor market, and that observed gender variations do not necessarily associate with differences in innate ability, in this paper we explore the paths of societal gender bias and gender differences in a Brazilian university.

We conduct a social experiment at a University in Southeastern Brazil, applying the gender-STEM Implicit Association Test.

We found that women in STEM are less likely to show gender-STEM implicit stereotypes, compared to women in humanities. The results indicate a negative correlation between implicit gender stereotyping and the choice of math-intensive majors by women.

The stereotype-congruent results are indicative of the gender bias in Brazilian society, and suggest that stereotypes created at early stages in life are directly related to future outcomes that reinforce gender disparities in Brazil, which can be observed in career choices.

This study aimed to analyze the strategies and challenges related to technology transfer (TT) in technology transfer offices (TTOs), specifically regarding actions to offer technologies in their portfolios.

The qualitative research used a multiple case study based on interviews with TTO managers from seven Brazilian public Science and Technology Institutions (STIs): University of São Paulo (USP), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Paulista State University (UNESP), Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR) and Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ).

STIs that invest more resources in their portfolio’s active offering and marketing are more successful in TT than STIs with a passive strategy. Although this active strategy has grown in importance, there is a disparity among Brazilian TTOs as some are still passive in commercializing their intellectual property. This research also highlights the need for clear policies to overcome obstacles related to legal uncertainty for researchers who wish to undertake projects as entrepreneurs using the intellectual property of STIs.

The results of this study cannot be generalized since its conclusions are limited to the studied institutions. However, the outcomes indicate some interesting matters for managers of STIs, public policymakers and TT researchers.

Literature on marketing and innovation related to TT between research institutions and companies in developing countries is still limited. Thus, this research contributes to generating knowledge in the field and improving TTOs.

Social entrepreneurship (SE) presents specificities that the entrepreneur must address. Entrepreneurial intention (EI) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in SE should reflect specific characteristics of behavior. The purpose of this study is to identify the intention of Brazilian university students to undertake SE, having individual social EO (individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO)-social) as their predictive behavior.

This paper collected study data from Brazilian university students. To test the study’s hypotheses, this paper used confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation model, partial least squares and generalized linear regression model.

The results indicate that Brazilian university students positively respond to their intention to become social entrepreneurs in the future, regardless of gender, courses or types of universities. In line with the literature, IEO-Social proved to be a strong predictor of EI-social.

This study was limited to understanding EI-social from IEO-Social. Besides, its sample is non-probabilistic, therefore, the findings of this study cannot be generalized.

The results encourage the inclusion of SE in entrepreneurial education programs. They guide the involvement of students from different areas of knowledge in activities aimed at higher education.

Evidence indicates that including the SE theme in entrepreneurial education programs proves to be valuable for opening purposeful career opportunities for students.

The study contributes to eliminating the gap in studies on EI-social in Brazilian university students. It also offers the IEO-social scale, theoretically constructed and with superior psychometric quality.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how certain characteristics of the university–industry–government collaboration facilitate knowledge creation and management, hence innovation focusing on particularities of the Brazilian scenario.

As a conceptual basis, there are correlations between theories of knowledge management and the Triple Helix, a model referenced to university–industry–government cooperation. The research was conducted through a multiple case study at two National Institutes of Science and Technology (INCTs in Portuguese).

The main results show the importance of participation in the INCT program, as it enables the creation of an organizational structure with the coordinator’s leadership, who directs the flow of knowledge among organizations and stimulates innovation.

The choice of the topic is justified by the lack of studies on the identification and analyses of the main aspects of this type of collaboration in an integrated way.

The establishment of partnerships between companies, government and universities aims to enhance innovation and the technological development of institutions. The biotechnology sector has grown in recent years mainly driven by its cooperative business model. Compared to other countries, this sector is slowly advancing in Brazil, with delays in science, technology and innovation, especially in the private sector. This paper aims to examine, through social network analysis, the collaborative networks between institutions that filed patents in biotechnology – medicinal preparations from plants – whose inventions had Brazil as the priority country.

The study of technological cooperation using patent documents is a reliable approach as they serve as good indicators of the interactions between organizations that focus on innovation and development of new product. Social network analysis of cooperation networks helps to understand the connections between patent assignees, and how they establish relationships.

Results show that public universities are the institutions that most deposit patents, as well as those that co-operate the most, especially Universidade of Campinas. The study also reveals the critical role of Research Support Agencies in stimulating research and technological development, which result in new technologies.

The study applied the social network analysis to provide an overview of the interactions among Brazilian institutions with the purpose of helping in decision-making and inciting public policies to leverage the biotechnology sector.