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This article proposes a new model for analyzing the determinants of absorptive capacity in companies. We suggest that absorptive capacity is determined not only by research and development activities, but also by a set of internal factors, which we group into three basic categories: organizational knowledge, formalization, and social integration mechanisms. In addition, we suggest that these factors may influence all components of the firm's absorptive capacity, and that the influence can be positive or negative depending on the applicability of the knowledge being absorbed. This paper thus advances the understanding of absorptive capacity by exploring a largely ignored aspect in the literature: the role of knowledge attributes. We show how the model can be operationalized and empirically tested and provide preliminary evidence supporting most of the propositions in the analytical model.

The growing importance of regions in the analysis of innovation and the pressure on European universities to interact with their environment justify this article. It argues that faculty support for the objectives of university-industry relations (UIR) does not vary across disciplines and does not respond to university encouragement in a region with low absorptive capacity. These results are in contrast with those obtained in studies of technology leading countries like the USA. Furthermore, incentives for UIR may generate unpredicted dynamics while instruments to cooperate are not significant. Finally, support for the objectives of UIR should not be confused with the degree of R&D cooperation. The former is sensitive to university age while the latter is sensitive to gender, discipline, commitment to R&D and university encouragement. Empirical evidence is obtained from a sample of faculty from the Valencian Community (Spain) and analysed through a set of models for discrete choice.

This article examines the implications of how academics respond to the debate on the production of knowledge and its transfer to the productive sector, for the transformation of Latin American universities. The empirical analysis is based on a survey of 349 lecturers from Bolivian public universities, which inquired into aspects of universityindustry relations (UIR). Although the results indicate that lecturers are in favour of relations with firms, there are several barriers to such relationships, such as lack of institutional support, generally unfavourable atmosphere in universities, and an industrial structure comprising few firms in knowledge-intensive sectors and firms with low absorptive capacity. In the context of Bolivia, unlike what occurs in developed countries, UIR have been configured around scientifically unimportant activities-technological support and internship schemes to place students in firms-which has had a negative effect on the consolidation of research, an academic activity, to which lecturers devote little of their time. The results of our study show the tensions that exist in efforts to change the university model; there is a reluctance to intensify the commercialisation of research results, and a lack of enthusiasm for introducing complex relationship mechanisms, such as the creation of hybrid structures.

Universities develop technology transfer mechanisms as the tools required to undertake missions committed to the socioeconomic environment. In this work a new proposal to measure the extent to which the goals or strategic objectives of a university are aligned with the results obtained through its technology transfer mechanisms with the local community is presented. This will enable to perform a diagnosis, by comparing the situation sought by the University Management team (expected case) with the actual one that derives from the application of the plans that implement the technology transfer mechanisms (real case). To achieve this, two different Multicriteria Decision Analysis techniques e.g. Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) will be used. Both the methodology and the MCDA techniques proposed need to be explained and clarified to the different experts who collaborate in the study, hence the facilitating process, key to the whole procedure, will be analysed in detail.The model proposed in this study is applied to analyse the case of the National

This paper explores the relationships between internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition as business innovation strategies. Drawing on absorptive capacity framework (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990), we distinguish and empirically evaluate two possible relationships: coexistence and complementarity. The analysis is based on a large sample of manufacturing firms taken from the Spanish Survey of Technological Innovation 2004. Our results show coexistence between internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition but they do not provide evidence that these activities are complementary with respect to influencing innovation performance. In other words, although our results suggest that internal R&D activities are associated with a greater use of external knowledge sourcing strategies, they do not seem to have synergistic effects to develop new products.Keywords: External knowledge acquisition; internal R&D; complementarity; coexistence. ResumenEste artículo analiza las relaciones existentes entre la generación y la adquisición externa de conocimiento como estrategias de innovación empresarial. Para ello, y utilizando el concepto de capacidad de absorción (Cohen y Levinthal, 1990) como marco de referencia, se distinguen y se analizan empíricamente dos posibles relaciones: coexistencia y complementariedad. El estudio es realizado sobre una muestra amplia de empresas manufactureras españolas, empleando los datos derivados de la Encuesta sobre Innovación Tecnológica del año 2004. Los resultados muestran que en el contexto analizado, las actividades internas de I+D y las estrategias asociadas con la adquisición externa de conocimiento son estrategias coexistentes, pero no complementarias. En otras palabras, si bien las actividades internas de I+D facilitan la identificación y adquisición de conocimiento externo, no se encuentra evidencia a favor de que dichas actividades tengan un efecto sinérgico para el desarrollo de nuevos productos.

Most studies of patents citations focus on national or international contexts, especially contexts of high absorptive capacity, and employ examiner citations. We argue that results can vary if we take the region as the context of analysis, especially if it is a region with low absorptive capacity, and if we study applicant citations and examiner-inserted citations separately. Using a sample from the Valencian Community (Spain), we conclude that (i) the use of examiner-inserted citations as a proxy for applicant citations, (ii) the interpretation of non-patent references as indicators of science-industry links, and (iii) the traditional results for geographical localization are not generalizable to all regions with low absorptive capacity.