The Effects of University–Industry Relationships and Academic Research On Scientific Performance: Synergy or Substitution?

Abstract

This paper evaluates whether university-industry relationships (UIR) and academic research activities have complementary effects on the scientific production of university lecturers. The analysis is based on a case study of two Spanish universities. We find that the effects of R&D contracts with industry, and academic research activity on scientific production are synergistic, but only when the R&D contracts account for a low percentage of a lecturer's total funding. This suggests that the positive effect of UIR on a lecturer's scientific production comes fundamentally from the capacity to provide complementary resources (cognitive, technical, and/or financial) for research activities. If lecturers are not involved in research and dedicate most their time to the development of activities related to UIR, their scientific production will be negatively affected.

Research Grants, Sources of Ideas and the Effects on Academic Research

“…They implicitly assume that contact with industry gives rise to a change in research orientation, resulting in a decrease in scientific output and an increase in commercial output. Other research mostly assessed quantitatively whether research outcome is directly affected by research sponsorship (Blumenthal et al 1997;Manjarrés-Henríquez et al 2009;Banal-Estanol, Jofre-Bonet, and Meissner 2010;Hottenrott and Thorwarth 2011;Lawson 2012) and the results suggest that industry funding may negatively affect scientific performance in terms of publications, but may also inspire patent productivity.…”

“…In the following analysis, we test if -controlling for unobserved heterogeneity between professors -different sources of ideas translate into differences in research performance in subsequent years, a phenomenon that has been attributed directly to funding in the previous literature (Blumenthal et al 1997;Geuna 1997;Manjarrés-Henríquez et al 2009;Banal-Estanol, Jofre-Bonet, and Meissner 2010;Hottenrott and Thorwarth 2011). This previous work, however, did not allow concluding whether this effect was due to time constraints of researchers involved in industry funded projects, non-disclosure clauses, or due to an impact on the research content that leads to research agendas that are more aligned with industry interests rather than with scientific relevance.…”

“…Continuous and even occasional close interactions, for instance, in the form of joint research, contract research and consulting, likely have a lasting impact on both parties involved. Recent empirical studies argued for a direct relationship between research grants and research outcome (Blumenthal et al 1997;Geuna 1997;Manjarrés-Henríquez et al 2009;Banal-Estanol, Jofre-Bonet, and Meissner 2010;Hottenrott and Thorwarth 2011;Lawson 2012). Some of this previous research suggested that the share of industry funding negatively affects publication output in subsequent periods.…”

An analysis of how long-term university-industry linkages affects academic research productivity

“…Some studies have noted that positive effects only occur under specific conditions (Bonaccorsi et al 2006;Manjarrés-Henríquez et al 2009;Banal-Estañol et al 2013), whereas others have found that collaboration can have negative effects on scientific productivity (Bonaccorsi & Piccaluga 1994;Hottenrott & Thorwarth 2011;Blumenthal et al 1996;Manjarrés-Henríquez et al 2009;Banal-Estañol et al 2015).…”

Networks, Space and Organizational Performance: A Study of the Determinants of Industrial Research Income Generation by Universities

“…Although several scholars have expressed concern regarding the potentially adverse effect of the growth of industrial funding upon the autonomy of university researchers and the quality of scientific production (Dasgupta and David, 1994), there is a growing body of evidence indicating that university researchers funded by industry are more productive than colleagues who are not in receipt of such funding (Gulbrandsen and Smeby, 2005). These studies suggest that industrial funding provides university researchers not only with additional financial resources but also relevant knowledge, generating synergistic effects on their scientific productivity, resulting in improved organisational performance (Manjarrés-Henríquez et al, 2009). …”