University–industry linkages and academic engagements: individual behaviours and firms’ barriers. Introduction to the special section

Abstract

The article introduces the special section on ''University-industry linkages and academic engagements: Individual behaviours and firms' barriers''. We first revisit the latest developments of the literature and policy interest on university-industry research. We then build upon the extant literature and unpack the concept of academic engagement by further exploring the heterogeneity of UI linkages along a set of dimensions and actors involved. These are: (1) Incentives and behaviours of individual academic entrepreneurs; (2) Firms' barriers to cooperation with public research institutions; (3) Individual behaviours, incentives and organizational bottlenecks in late developing countries. We summarize the individual contributions along these dimensions. There are overlooked individual characteristics that affect the degree of engagement of academics and scholars in cooperating with other organizations, of which gender and the nonacademic background of individuals are most crucial. The notion of academic engagement should be enlarged to aspects that go beyond the commercialization or patenting of innovation, but embrace social and economic impact more at large. From the perspective of the firm, barriers to innovation might exert an effect on the likelihood to cooperate with universities and public research institutes, most especially to cope with lack of finance or access to frontier knowledge. We finally propose a research agenda that addresses the challenges ahead.

Gender differences in perception of the university education quality as applied to entrepreneurial intention

“…Van Looy et al (2011), conducted a research within 105 European universities, advocate the need for universities to enter the business environment through their scientific activities that enable them to succeed in their business. Filippetti and Savona (2017) emphasize that universities are directly linked to the manufacturing sphere and other organizations in order to cope with the lack of finance and get key knowledge (Jansen et al, 2015). Consequentially, universities should apply a strategy in order to bring together local partners in support of young entrepreneurs (Bezerra, Borges, & Andreassi, 2017).…”

Mapping the field: a bibliometric analysis of the literature on university–industry collaborations

“…While the recent research endeavours must be applauded, there is still a long way to go on the question of what individual-level characteristics and motives should be possessed by academics and industrial partners to successfully collaborate, and particularly to manage the relationships over time to achieve strong outcomes (Filippetti and Savona 2017;Maietta 2015). Given that the characteristics and motives of academics and industrial partners differ when it comes to U-I collaborations, in addition to within-group variations (Link 2015), it is likely that the mechanisms for governing U-I relationships are highly varied in nature.…”

“…On the institutional level, the literature points to the economic and societal impact generated by U-I collaborations on regional and national levels as well as to an increasing importance of policy developments that would maximise the effectiveness of U-I interactions (Filippetti and Savona 2017). In the last decade, different configurations of Triple Helix interactions that frequently form a complex system of inter-dependent relations have been developed (Lei et al 2012).…”

Advance Management Education for Power-Engineering and Industry of the Future

“…As a result, the role of research in It is natural that, according to experts, bureaucracy was the most critical factor hindering the introduction of innovation in universities; this feature of the university structure is described as a serious barrier to innovation in a number of publications (with [71,72] worth noting as the most fundamental studies of this issue that involve a wide selection of universities). However, it is not less important to involve business in the implementation of advance education projects [73]. Moreover, it should be emphasized once again that the practical need for advance education can only be satisfied through introducing proactive management based on digitalization and the mechanism for early detection of threats and emerging opportunities.…”