Knowledge spillovers: cooperation between universities and KIBS

Abstract

Knowledge is increasingly perceived as a fulcral factor to company competitiveness. As the transfer of knowledge is one of the key functions of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS), this research seeks to analyse how the transfer of knowledge takes place between the higher education sector and KIBS type firms. The empirical results show that cooperation between KIBS and universities occurs irrespective of the typology (whether professional or technological in focus). We also empirically establish how geographic proximity is the factor bearing greatest influence over cooperation while such cooperation proves to have a positive impact on the company capacity to innovate. We furthermore find that this innovation capacity also drives a positive company financial performance.

Publicly funded R&D for public sector performance and efficiency: evidence from Europe

“…These findings support previous evidence on the importance of cooperative relationships between public and private R&D forces (Gallego et al, ), either by means of public‐private R&D networks (i.e., Postle, ; Carayannis and Laget ) or university‐firm cooperation partnerships (i.e., Fernandes and Ferreira, ; Plewa et al, ). It is precisely in this area in which the EU tends to score lower in comparison to the United States, where public sector research organisations have developed a far more effective linking arrangement to the overall innovation system .…”

The dark side of knowledge transfer: Exploring knowledge leakage in joint R&D projects

“…Against this background, knowledge leakage issues have been studied at the regional and country levels (Klette et al, 2000), and the literature on agglomeration economies and knowledge spillovers focuses on knowledge diffusion among participating firms (Cassiman and Veugelers, 2002;Fernandes and Ferreira, 2013;Hoetker and Agarwal, 2007). Previous leakage studies have also adopted a transaction cost economics perspective (Oxley, 1997;Sampson, 2004), corporate networks (Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000) and R&D alliances (Kale et al, 2000;Norman, 2002).…”

Drivers of University–Industry Links: The Case of Knowledge-Intensive Business Service Firms in Rural Locations

“…developing industry linkages and commercialising their knowledge (Lambert 2003;Huggins et al 2008;Goddard et al 2012;Wilson 2012), essentially pursuing a 'triple helix model' of regional development (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff 2000;Etzkowitz 2003) in placing formal U-I linkages at the heart of such development. In light of the similar roles performed by universities and KIBS firms scholars are increasingly turning their attention to interaction between the two (Pinto et al 2013;Fernandes & Ferreira 2013).…”