Search results

The academic experience of top management team (TMT) has a positive impact on firms' innovation performance. However, existing studies predominantly focus on the educational qualifications and institutional prestige of TMT, failing to comprehensively evaluate whether TMT possess genuine academic experience and the role of academic competence. This article aims to examine whether TMT academic competence has a potential influence on firm innovation performance and to understand the mechanisms behind this relationship.

Using firm-level metrics of Chinese listed firms and TMT scholarly publication data spanning 2000–2021, this paper investigates whether TMT academic competence can promote firms' innovation performance and conducts a moderated mediating effect analysis.

(1) Academic competence of TMT can contribute positively to firms’ innovation performance; (2) university–industry collaboration partially mediates this relationship; (3) the mediating effect is enhanced by cognitive proximity and (4) distance proximity does not diminish the mediating effect.

Outcome of this study can assist academia in further understanding the impacts of TMT on firm innovation and aid government in promoting university–industry collaboration. Simultaneously, it can help firms adjust their TMT selection and training strategies to enhance innovation performance.

This article, as the first to construct an index of academic competence and to explore whether it has an impact on firms' innovation performance and its inherent mechanism, can provide a new research perspective for the study of the impact of TMT's characteristics on firms' innovation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate university–industry partnerships in Armenia from the viewpoint of universities. By doing so, it contributes to the existing literature on university–industry collaboration by identifying and addressing the specific challenges that impede the establishment of successful university–industry partnerships in Armenia and other post-Soviet countries.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to examine the barriers, benefits and institutional, functional framework of collaboration. Additionally, this study used a survey methodology to gather data from faculty managing staff members at six Armenian higher educational institutions on various aspects of university–industry collaboration as well as the perceptions and experiences of the participants.

The results show that the effectiveness and applicability of the university–industry collaboration channels and institutional structures in six higher educational institutions are limited. Specifically, the channels that rely on academic entrepreneurship and innovation were found to be currently unviable. Moreover, the existence of spin-offs and start-ups is notably absent. Furthermore, limited access to funding and inadequate entrepreneurial support systems pose significant barriers to developing university–industry partnerships in Armenian reality.

This study represents a pioneering effort within the context of Armenian higher educational institutions, as it is the first time a survey has been organized to specifically investigate the topic of university–industry partnerships. Before this study, there was a lack of empirical research and data collection on this topic in Armenian higher education settings. Therefore, this research holds significant originality and contributes to filling the existing gap in knowledge regarding university–industry partnerships in Armenia. The research is shedding light on a previously unexplored area and providing a valuable contribution to the field of university–industry collaboration research in Armenia and other post-Soviet countries.

University–industry projects provide special challenges in understanding and expressing the values required of project management (PM) in delivering stakeholder benefits. This paper presents a framework for understanding, identifying and managing the values of PM in major university–industry R&D projects.

The value framework identifies for each of the key stakeholders, the key PM values that may require to be managed and are largely derived from research literature. Empirical research then explores, prioritises and selects key PM values that need to be managed for a specific project. A large case study is used involving one university and one industry collaborating on a multi-million Euro initiative over six years. Empirical research was conducted by researchers who observed at close quarters, the challenges and successes of managing the competing values of key stakeholders.

The value framework takes a stakeholders' perspective by identifying the respective PM values for each of six stakeholders: university–industry consortium, university, industry, R&D external entities, funding entity and society.

The research was performed using only one case study which limits the generalisability of its findings; however, the findings are presented as a decision support aid for project consortia in developing values for their own collaboration.

Guidance and decision support are provided to multi-stakeholder research consortia when selecting values that need to be managed for achieving tangible and intangible project benefits.

The paper demonstrates a proposed framework for designing and managing the value of PM in large multi-stakeholder university–industry R&D projects.

To increase university–industry collaboration and research commercialisation, the Australian government recently introduced the Intellectual Property (IP) Framework, a set of online standard contracts. This follows a predecessor standard contract initiative, the IP Toolkit, which has not previously been evaluated. This paper aims to examine standard contracting in the innovation sector, tracing the policymaking behind the IP Toolkit using the lens of Macneil’s relational contract theory, to assess prospects of success for the new IP Framework, and similar initiatives in other jurisdictions.

This is a disciplined-configurative case study, drawing on qualitative secondary data analysis and applying Macneil’s relational contracting theory to guide case construction and generate hypotheses around likely success of standard contracting initiatives (stakeholder sentiment, stakeholder adoption). Within-case analysis process-traces development of the IP Toolkit, to discover what the policymakers wanted, knew and computed – and to detail observable implications Macneil’s theory predicts. Its themes are triangulated with multiple sources.

The case study, via Macneil’s theory, confirms the first hypothesis (resistant stakeholder sentiment) and partly validates the second hypothesis (low levels of adoption), demonstrating limited suitability of standard contracting in the dynamic and highly uncertain space of university–industry collaboration.

The study provides insights into the limited role that standard contracts can play in improving national collaborative research and development performance.

This is a novel theory-driven case study triangulated with previously unpublished data on the IP Toolkit’s website usage, and data from recent consultations on the new IP Framework. It has broader implications for other jurisdictions considering adoption of the standard contract model.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how knowledge management and university-industry-government collaboration – including the triple helix – relate with each other in influencing organizations’ performance. In the competitive environment nowadays, an organization’s ability to create and use knowledge becomes ever more essential in the search for sustainable competitive advantage, even leading to the search for new forms of inter-organizational arrangements.

The representatives of such collaborations selected for this study are the National Institutes of Science and Technology. The categorical content analysis technique was used for the qualitative analysis of the data.

The principal contribution was the proposal of an analytical model relating the knowledge management and triple helix theories and the proposed dimensions (namely, structural, relational, cognitive and the context), considering the peculiarities of the Brazilian context. The findings show that the organizational structure (structural) influences not only the relationship among members (relational) but also the flow of knowledge (cognitive), as well as how relational elements (collaborative culture, trust and leadership) facilitate knowledge sharing. Moreover, the context affects these three other dimensions. The main obstacles identified were cultural differences, bureaucracy and the socio-economic reality, while facilitators were the existence of technology parks and incubators, government incentives and geographical proximity between universities and industry.

This topic was chosen as there are few empirical studies that comprehensively relate the topics of knowledge management and university-industry-government cooperation focusing on the Brazilian context.

Despite evaluating the performance of university-industry alliances being extremely important, scholars have not developed any structured and commonly accepted systems of indicators aimed at measuring the results of these collaborations. In this article, the aim is to review the literature on the evaluation of the performance of university-industry alliances and to identify a series of issues that future studies on this topic should take into account.

The paper opts for a literature review on university-industry collaborations. The review is based on papers in management, economics, and organization science. Systems of indicators to evaluate the performance of these collaborations are discussed. Directions for further research are proposed.

The literature review on firm-industry collaborations highlights a large number of contributions on the topic. However, it shows that there is still room for further inquiry on systems of indicators to evaluate the performance of these collaborations.

The literature review offers a good guideline to researchers intending to study the performance of industry-university collaborations. The discussion on the system of indicators paves the way to further empirical research on the topic.

The authors are confident that the paper has interesting practical implications. Indeed, it is a valuable guideline for policymakers, university managers, and entrepreneurs interested in evaluating the performance of industry-university collaborations.

Industry collaborations are the third mission of university systems. When this mission is accomplished in a proper manner, it benefits firms, universities, and society at large.

The paper adds to the debate on university-industry collaborations by offering literature on the topic with a particular emphasis on an under-researched theme: systems of indicators to evaluate the performance of these collaborations.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to improve the effectiveness of university–industry collaboration (UIC). This work enhances the existing body of literature and knowledge regarding collaboration and offers concrete steps to be taken for effective collaboration between universities and industries.

A literature review to study the best practices, impediments to collaboration and the various models proposed in the past for successful UIC was conducted. A workshop and focus-group meetings of practitioners and academic researchers was designed and organised to explore the current state of the university–industry engagement within the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region and gather inputs regarding possible approaches to improve collaboration. The findings from the literature review and the results from this qualitative research regarding the approaches to improve the effectiveness of the collaboration were analysed.

The study discovers that various measures have been proposed in the form of best practices or models to improve the effectiveness of UIC. However, these measures often address a specific concern such as technology transfer, intellectual property (IP), etc. There is a scope for a comprehensive holistic framework to address many aspects of UIC in order to improve effectiveness and achieve success. A framework for improving the effectiveness of collaboration considering a comprehensive list of factors operating in a broad context within the collaboration system was proposed.

The framework builds on previous literature dealing with measures for successful UIC. However, it is the first of its kind, in the researcher's knowledge, in terms of comprehensiveness of the factors contributing to establishing and sustaining successful collaboration. The value of the individual experience of the participants in this qualitative research, which is on average more than 10 years in the software engineering field, validates the importance and quality of the data collected. The addition of these results to the framework increases its validity.The framework can be utilised by universities and industry practitioners to foster successful and effective collaboration. The results have significant relevance, particularly within the Australian context as the government has intensified the adoption of measures to encourage and improve collaboration between universities and the industry.

We examine the determinants of multinational firms’ propensity to conduct R&D activities in host countries, with specific attention to the influence of host countries’ university research. We consider heterogeneous locational drivers related to the type of R&D activity: basic research, applied research, development for local markets, and development for global markets. Drawing on official survey data on R&D activities by 498 Japanese multinational firms in 24 host countries and estimating two-stage models, we find that the likelihood that firms conduct R&D in a host country is generally increasing in the strength of university research. Conditional on a firm’s R&D presence, university research strength is associated with a greater propensity to conduct (basic) research activities rather than (local) development, while the intensity of host country university–industry collaboration is most strongly associated with applied research. Host country experience and the depth of the firm’s manufacturing presence are also associated higher propensities to engage in research.

The innovation process demands an interaction between environment agents, knowledge generators and policies of incentive for innovation and not only development by companies. Universities have gradually become the core of the knowledge production system and, therefore, their role regarding innovation has become more important and diversified. This study is aimed at identifying the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

This study is aimed at identifying, based on a systematic literature review, the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

The analysis of the 72 selected articles enabled identifying 15 mechanisms of U–I collaboration, proposing a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process.

In this paper, the authors screened nearly 1,500 papers and analyzed in detail 86 papers addressing U–I collaboration, mechanisms of U–I collaboration and operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process. This paper provides a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process. This research contributes to both theory and practice by highlighting managerial aspects and stimulating academic research on such timely topic.

University–industry collaborations are an important driver of innovation that highlights the benefits of collaborative processes across organizational boundaries. However, like in most collaborative processes, many challenges remain when trying to manage the process of knowledge sharing and interaction in university–industry partnerships. In this chapter, the authors specifically investigate how leadership as a managerial dimension facilitates collaboration within university–industry joint laboratories. The authors present an explorative and inductive case study of eight joint laboratories set up by Telecom Italia within five major Italian universities. The results show that the laboratory directors play a crucial role in providing a dynamic and socially active working environment, which is enabled through a process of sensemaking and sensegiving. The authors, moreover, find that this process plays a crucial role by shaping effective communication channels that facilitate knowledge sharing and transfer of information. The authors find that this process ultimately acts as a mediator between charismatic leadership on the individual level and distributed leadership on the collective level.