University-Industry Knowledge Transfer: Channels of Sport Research Interaction

Abstract

The reputation of academic programs is increasingly defined in terms of both the generation of high-quality research and the success in transferring scientific findings into commercial development. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the particular channels of research interaction between sport academia and sport companies. The purpose of this study was to assess, for the first time, the degree to which different channels of research interaction could be used to inform the research involvement levels of sport organizations with sport academia. Information was gathered from 292 sport managers working for United States sport companies. The results provide evidence that sport managers who collaborated with sport management academia are more concerned with working on joint research projects with sport management scholars and departments than with academic engagement in patenting and licenses, or involvement in networking, scholars' mobility, and publication research channels.

Strategic mechanisms for stimulating academiaindustry interactions in Rwanda

“…Chaves et al (2015) categorized information channels into channels related to the traditional role of universities and those referring to the new role as entrepreneurial universities. Other studies considered criteria such as formality (Bekkers & Bodas Freitas, 2008;Ramos-Vielba & Fernández-Esquinas, 2011) and the nature of interactions (Bekkers & Bodas Freitas, 2008;Ramos-Vielba & Fernández-Esquinas, 2011;De Fuentes & Dutrénit, 2012;Zaharia, 2017;D'Este & Patel, 2007) to come up with categories like (1) information and training (2) intellectual property rights, (3) R&D projects and consultancy, (4) human resources, (5) commercialization and IPR-related activities, (6) staff and students mobility, and (7) networking. Aside the variety of channels used in UIC, the literature also covers aspects related to preference and intensity of using channels and factors underpinning the choice and use of channels.…”

“…The majority of studies that are concerned with channels of interaction have ranked them by their perceived importance or by respondents' expressed preference (D'Este & Patel, 2007;Bekkers & Bodas Freitas, 2008;Dutrénit et al, 2010;Arza & Vazquez, 2010;Chaves et al, 2015;Arza et al, 2015;Zaharia, 2017). Treating those approaches as the same, two salient features are highlighted.…”

“…This is an indication that though the role of university as a key agent in technological development and innovation is recognized by many, universities are still inclined to pursue more traditional goals than those pertaining to the new entrepreneurial mission (Berbegal-Mirabent et al, 2013). The low popularity of commercial channels may be linked to their negative impact on UIC benefits as noted by Dutrénit et al (2010) and Dutrénit and Arza (2010) and their inability to contribute to firms' competitive advantage (Zaharia, 2017).…”

“…A closer look at the research objectives of different publications on channels reveals two terminologies used by researchers. One is the channels of knowledge transfer (Zavale & Macamo, 2016;Alexander & Martin, 2013;Olmos-Peñuela et al, 2014;Bekkers & Bodas Freitas, 2008;Arza et al, 2015), the other is the channels of interaction (Ramos-Vielba & Fernández-Esquinas, 2011;D'Este & Patel, 2007;Zaharia, 2017;Arza & Vazquez, 2010;Chaves et al, 2015;De Fuentes & Dutrénit, 2012;Dutrénit, De Fuentes & Torres, 2010). Except for Chaves et al (2015) who made a net distinction between types of interaction from what was referred to as channels of information for knowledge transfer, other researchers considered those terminologies to mean the same and therefore proposed a similar list of channels.…”

“…According to Garousi et al (2016), joint research projects between academia and industry may be initiated either by a university researcher, industry scientist, or by a joint discussion between academia and industry scientists. Different channels through which research-related collaboration passes have been identified (Bekkers & Bodas Freitas, 2008;Ramos-Vielba & Fernández-Esquinas, 2011;De Fuentes & Dutrénit, 2012;Zaharia, 2017;D'Este & Patel, 2007). The most commonly referred to include: joint publications, R&D joint projects, contract research, conferences and meetings, and consultancy.…”