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Absorptive capacity plays a key role in determining firms' capability to access and make use of external knowledge. However, little evidence has been provided about this important determinant of knowledge acquisition in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This article investigates the importance of absorptive capacity created and accumulated in R&D efforts and in qualified human resources, on SMEs' capabilities to collaborate with other firms, with universities and with technology transfer centres. The empirical evidence is based on a survey of interviews with 276 manufacturing SMEs located in the Lombardy region (Italy). Probit model estimations demonstrate that even in SMEs absorptive capacity has a relevant impact on the ability of firms to establish collaborations with external organisations.Absorptive capacity, Collaboration, SMEs,

University, Collaboration, Technology transfer, Technology transfer office, L24, L31, O32, O33,

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Although universities are generally under pressure to increase their interactions with industry, academic departments vary enormously in the extent to which they collaborate with businesses. There are several factors, which, to different extents, drive or hamper academics' capabilities to engage in collaboration with the private sector. On the basis of original data from interviews with 197 university departments in Italy, this paper investigates the main obstacles to technology transfer activity as perceived by academic researchers, and their possible impact on university-industry collaborations. The analysis shows that three (out of four) perceived obstacles are barriers to university -industry interactions and negatively affect the probability of engaging in collaboration with industry. The estimated impact of these perceived obstacles on the frequency of collaborations is less clear-cut and requires further investigation.

There is growing political pressure on universities to intensify their interaction with industry and to\ud enlarge their own research funding options, in a context characterised by increasing constraints on public\ud spending. However, whether the successful achievement of such a political desired outcome is consistent\ud with a restriction of government funding is not clear and requires further investigation. As a matter of\ud fact, there is scant empirical evidence on whether and to what extent government funding affects the\ud external funding options available to universities, in particular those related to research and consulting\ud activities. By using a set of probit and tobit panel data models estimated on financial data for the whole\ud population of Italian university departments engaged in research in the Engineering and Physical Sciences,\ud this paper provides evidence that government funding to universities complements funding from\ud research contracts and consulting, contributing to increasing universities’ collaboration with industry\ud and activating knowledge transfer processes

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