Exploring determinants of firms’ collaboration with specific universities: employee-driven relations and geographical proximity

Drejer, Ina; Østergaard, Christian Richter

doi:10.1080/00343404.2017.1281389

Cited by 30 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(57 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Firms must overcome several obstacles to incorporate industry-university collaboration into their innovation activities. High absorptive capacity, or the ability to acquire, assimilate and integrate external knowledge into organisational routines (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990), has been found to facilitate interaction with universities (Drejer & Østergaard, 2017;Laursen & Salter, 2004;Mohnen & Hoareau, 2003). Larger firms are more likely to interact with academic institutions because they have the resources needed to exploit university knowledge (Laursen & Salter, 2004;Mohnen & Hoareau, 2003).…”

Section: Overcoming Barriers For Collaboration Between Firms and Univmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These variables were used as proxies for the firms' absorptive capacity in the industry-university collaboration literature and take into account the finding that firms with higher absorptive capacity are more likely to collaborate with universities (Drejer & Østergaard, 2017;Laursen & Salter, 2004). SHAREGRAD and RDSALES were continuous variables, and PATENTS was a dichotomous variable that took the value of "1" for firms that reported applying for patents and "0", the reference category, for firms that reported applying for no patents.…”

Section: Explanatory Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Bridging the Gap between Firms and Universities: Firm Links with Research and Technology Organisations in Different Types of Regions

Fernandez-Guerrero¹

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examined how collaboration with research and technology organisations (RTOs) was associated with industry-university collaboration as part of firms' innovative activities in different types of geographical regions. By combining data from the Danish Research and Innovation Survey and Danish register data at different points in time, the link between firms' collaboration with RTOs and their collaboration with universities in Denmark was studied.Also, the link between the firms' locations in peripheral regions, non-metropolitan university regions or the metropolitan region of Copenhagen and their collaboration with universities in Denmark were also studied. The results suggest that firms that collaborate with RTOs are more likely to collaborate with universities. This paper argues that collaboration with RTOs is associated with a higher likelihood of industry-university collaboration because this experience of collaboration allows firms to overcome barriers for collaboration with universities, which are related to differences in norms and incentive systems between firms and universities. When looking at different types of regions, firms in peripheral and metropolitan regions that collaborated with RTOs were more likely to collaborate with universities. However, firms in non-metropolitan university regions that collaborated with RTOs were not more likely to collaborate with universities.

show abstract

Section: Overcoming Barriers For Collaboration Between Firms and Univmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Explanatory Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the Gap between Firms and Universities: Firm Links with Research and Technology Organisations in Different Types of Regions

Fernandez-Guerrero¹

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The novelty of this knowledge, however, might make its interpretation difficult, requiring the use of knowledge transfer mechanisms (see below); • The creation of human capital: graduate employees help increasing firms' absorptive capacity (Charles, 2006;Marques, 2017). In some cases, moreover, social ties between business employees/managers and universities are associated to a higher likelihood of university-industry interaction (Drejer & Østergaard, 2017); • The transfer of existing know-how, that is the application of knowledge already available to solve a problem. This activity entails the application of basic university research, and can encompass a wide range of universityindustry interaction channels, from informal consultation and contract research to long-term university-industry partnerships (Abreu & Grinevich, 2013;D'Este & Patel, 2007;Perkmann & Walsh, 2007);…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-creation of localised capabilities between universities and nascent industries: The case of Aalborg University and the North Denmark Region

Fernandez-Guerrero

Evers

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper focuses on two cases of interaction between Aalborg University and science-based industries that have appeared in the North Denmark region in recent decades: the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and biomedical industries. These two cases provide a unique opportunity to study the mechanisms behind the more or less successful development of localised capabilities through university-industry interaction: while both of them are sciencebased industries with tight linkages with the university, the outcome of the exchanges with the higher education institution has differed. The feedback loops between university and industry seem to have stimulated the development of localised capabilities favouring the competitiveness, and success, of the ICT industry. However, the university actions supporting the development of the biomedical industry do not seem to have been followed by a growing industrial development, as would be expected if the biomedical industry had developed localised capabilities ensuring its competitiveness. For each case, qualitative and quantitative research methods have been applied: this paper combines desk research on secondary sources with qualitative interviews and descriptive analyses based on data from Statistics Denmark.

show abstract

“…For cognitive proximity, researchers argued that having university graduates among the employees increase the likelihood of mutual understanding and learning in inter-sectoral contexts such as university-industry relationships [56]. This operationalization has been widely used for measuring the absorptive capacity [43] of firms, as the prior knowledge that enable firms to assimilate and exploit the external knowledge, and seems to comply with Boschma's [16] description that "the cognitive base of organizations define their absorptive capacity for learning and innovation".…”

Section: Instproxfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability-Oriented Innovation in the Minerals Industry: An Empirical Study on the Effect of Non-Geographical Proximity Dimensions

Ghassim

2018

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Minerals mining and processing companies (hereinafter referred to as "minerals industry") face the increasing demand for a comprehensive approach towards innovations aimed at sustainability. While the ability to learn from external sources of knowledge is at the core of this process, lack of geographical proximity and multiplicity of external sources impose challenges for mineral companies in this respect. The present study proposes that organizational, institutional and cognitive proximities could provide a platform for this industry to overcome those challenges, thereby achieving a superior innovation performance across various sustainability dimensions. Results of an analysis based on a sample of 101 mineral companies in Norway reveal that these dimensions of proximity are conducive to process, product and social innovation in different ways. More specifically, organizational proximity (diversity of non-local collaborations) and informal institutional proximity (shared cultural norms and values) spur social innovation. Furthermore, formal institutional proximity (similarity of rules and laws) and cognitive proximity (familiarity of knowledge base) support both process and product innovations. This paper provides some insights on the determinants of innovation in sustainability contexts, and contributes to the recent debate on the role of non-spatial proximity dimensions for innovation in the peripheral regions.

show abstract

Exploring determinants of firms’ collaboration with specific universities: employee-driven relations and geographical proximity

Cited by 30 publications

References 27 publications

Bridging the Gap between Firms and Universities: Firm Links with Research and Technology Organisations in Different Types of Regions

Bridging the Gap between Firms and Universities: Firm Links with Research and Technology Organisations in Different Types of Regions

Co-creation of localised capabilities between universities and nascent industries: The case of Aalborg University and the North Denmark Region

Sustainability-Oriented Innovation in the Minerals Industry: An Empirical Study on the Effect of Non-Geographical Proximity Dimensions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About