University spillovers into small technology-based firms: channel, mechanism, and geography

This study examines how university knowledge spills over into small technology-based firms in Japan. Estimated Heckman selection models taking into account the timing of university-industry research collaboration and geographical proximity to spillover pools reveal that cooperative research with universities positively affects R&D productivity of small technology-based firms with a three-year lag. Among small technology-based firms that collaborate with universities in research, firms with local ties have a greater advantage in improving the quality of their R&D personnel through the acquisition of complementary knowledge. Theoretical and policy implications of empirical results are discussed.     

Interactive Relations Between Universities and Firms: Empirical Evidence for Austria

In recent years interaction between universities and the business sector and the role of these collaborations in fostering innovation has received greater attention. This paper analyzes different types of interactions between the two sectors from the perspectives of universities and firms. The three major research questions address the frequency of different types of interactions, the benefits that companies derive from interaction with universities and determinants of interaction for both sectors.Two different surveys form the empirical base for this paper: One among innovative firms in Austria, one among all Austrian university departments. The methodologies we use are analyses of variance and logistic regressions. Our results demonstrate that the main channel of knowledge transfer from universities to the business sector still occurs through the mobility of human capital. The major barriers of interaction lie in the differences between cultures of the two spheres as well as lack of information at the side of firms.     

University knowledge and firm innovation: evidence from European countries

In recent decades, firms have intensified the exploration of external sources of knowledge to enhance their innovation capabilities. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the factors that affect the importance of academic knowledge for firms’ innovation activities. An integrated approach that simultaneously considers country- and firm-level factors is adopted. Regarding the former factors, the analysis shows that the entrepreneurial orientation of university and the quality of academic research increase the importance of knowledge transfers from universities to firms. This suggests that the environmental and institutional context contributes to cross-national disparities in university-industry interactions and the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. In regard to the latter factors, the results indicate that firms oriented toward open search strategies and radical innovations are more likely to draw knowledge from universities. Furthermore, firms belonging to high technology sectors and firms with high absorptive capacity place greater value on the various links with universities. With respect to firm size, the estimates show an inverted U-shaped relation with the importance of universities as a source of knowledge.     

Geographic proximity and university–industry interaction: the case of Mexico

This paper analyses whether geographic proximity favours specific channels of university–industry interaction when firms collaborate with universities and with government research centres. Our study also provides insights regarding the relationship between the associated channel and the role of firms’ absorptive capacities. Our results show that firms with higher levels of absorptive capacities tend to interact more independently of their location. Additionally, interaction with non-local universities generally includes the transfer of codified forms of knowledge, while links with local universities includes more tacit forms of knowledge. Policy implications derived from this analysis focus on fostering interaction at local and non-local levels.     

Firms’ rationales for interaction with research universities and the principles for public co-funding

R&D managers at 50 firms who have formal relations with two research universities in Stockholm are interviewed about their rationales for collaboration. Drawing on this material, a distinctive typology of rationales for establishing cooperative relations is presented. While the typology demonstrates a considerable breadth of interaction rationales, rationales related to innovation, in terms of invented or improved products or processes, are found to be the main drivers for interaction. Based on this framework, we analyse which rationales for interaction are consistent with public rationales for supporting university-industry relationships. Public co-funding that allow firms to influence (part of) the academic agenda is identified as a particularly interesting case that requires further theoretical attention.     

Capturing Technological Opportunity Via Japan's Star Scientists: Evidence from Japanese Firms' Biotech Patents and Products

Using detailed data on biotechnology in Japan, we find that identifiable collaborations between particular university star scientists and firms have a large positive impact on firms' research productivity, increasing the average firm's biotech patents by 34 percent, products in development by 27 percent, and products on the market by 8 percent as of 1989–1990. However, there is little evidence of geographically localized knowledge spillovers. In early industry formation, star scientists holding tacit knowledge required to practice recombinant DNA (genetic engineering) were of great economic value, leading to incentives motivating their participation in technology transfer. In Japan, the legal and institutional context implies that firm scientists work in the stars' university laboratories in contrast to America where the stars are more likely to work in the firm's labs. As a result, star collaborations in Japan are less localized around their research universities so that the universities' local economic development impact is lessened. Stars' scientific productivity is increased less during collaborations with firms in Japan as compared to the U.S.     

University and inter-firm R&D collaborations: propensity and intensity of cooperation in Europe

This paper investigates the determinants of firms’ decision to cooperate in R&D with universities and the intensity of the cooperation effort, in relation to the engagement in inter-firm R&D collaborations. Using novel survey data for seven EU countries between 2007 and 2009, our analysis accounts for unobservable factors influencing R&D cooperation forms and addresses the main endogeneity issues. We find that internal knowledge, appropriability conditions and incoming spillovers explain a large variation of the probability and of the intensity of R&D collaborations of European firms with universities (and comparably with unaffiliated companies).     

The effect of competitive and non-competitive R&;D collaboration on firm innovation

A firm can improve its innovation either by its internal research and development (R&D) efforts or by forming external collaborative R&D alliances. While previous studies on R&D collaboration and knowledge diffusion mainly focus on various external sources of R&D collaboration, little effort has been made to investigate the joint impact of competitive and non-competitive R&D collaborations on firm innovation simultaneously. By examining the data of 165 Taiwanese firms in the information and communication technology industry, we find that: (1) non-competitive R&D collaborations with universities have a positive direct impact on firm’s innovation performance; and (2) both non-competitive and competitive R&D collaborations have a positively moderating effect on the relationship between a firm’s internal R&D efforts and firm innovation and the positive moderating effect is higher for non-competitive R&D collaborations than that of competitive R&D collaborations. These findings suggest that R&D collaborations, either non-competitive or competitive, exhibit the nature of a win–win situation. We also derive implications for firms’ selection of R&D alliance partners and government policies.     

The role of universities in the location of innovative start-ups

Start-ups increasingly find the prospect of university–industry collaborations to be a powerful driver of innovation and entrepreneurship activity. Moreover, at the geographical level, they are attracted by teaching and research institutions, either public or private. This paper focuses on the role played by universities. Our hypothesis is that geographical proximity favors the transfer of knowledge and technology from universities to industries and, consequently, represents a positive factor for regional economic development. Results show that university spillovers are positively correlated with the creation of innovative start-ups. Furthermore, the presence of human capital (graduates) exerts a significant influence on the location decisions of start-ups, being a source for competitiveness for firms close to universities. Research quality, especially in the social sciences area, attracts innovative start-ups, while third-mission activities have a weak impact on locational choice.     

Academic patenting: the importance of industry support

This paper provides evidence that university-industry collaboration is important for turning commercial opportunities into patents. The results suggest that researchers who receive a large share of research grants from industry have a higher propensity to file a patent. Small dissemination grants generally exert a positive effect, whether they come from industry or not. It also finds that these interactions do not increase the number of industry owned patents alone but benefit universities’ commercialisation efforts in general.     

Technology proximity between firms and universities and technology transfer

This paper investigates the technological orientation of firms and universities and their propensity to have knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) activities. This study looks at the technological potential for KTT and how it is used, emphasizing differences between smaller and larger firms. To this end we collected information about the technology activities of firms (patent statistics) and the technology activities of universities. Furthermore, we used survey data on technology transfer activities. We combined the three datasets and found??especially for smaller firms??that great technology proximity fosters transfer activities with different universities (case 1). The same is true if proximity is low and expertise is considerable at universities in the respective technology field (case 2). In both cases additional transfer potential exists. In the second case firms engage in transfer activities in order to update and modify their knowledge base and as a consequence improve ??competitiveness?? in certain technology fields. Furthermore, firms show a tendency to diversify their contacts with universities in order to avoid knowledge lock-in.     

University–Industry collaboration in the biopharmaceuticals: the Italian case

We investigate the determinants of University–Industry (U–I) interactions in the biopharmaceuticals in Italy over the period 2004–2010, choosing co-publishing as a proxy of U–I partnerships. We construct a novel dataset of co-published articles, that contains measures of proximities, agglomeration, firms’ and universities’ characteristics. Following a consolidated methodology, we integrate our dataset of effective interactions with the set of all potential interactions, to estimate probabilistic models for the occurrence and the intensity of U–I interactions. Our main findings confirm and extend the predictions of the previous literature: (1) geographical proximity and prior partnership increase the probability and the intensity of co-publication; (2) the proximity of a firm to other biopharmaceutical firms and universities attenuates the relevance of geographical proximity; (3) there exists complementarity between prior partnerships and geographical proximity. A novel result is that firms’ and Universities’ size, firms’ R&D and patents expenditure and the composition of the academic staff as well as quality of academic research exert a significant impact on the intensity of co-publishing.     

Examining alliance management capabilities in university-industry collaboration

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Effective university-industry technology transfer requires universities to maintain and strengthen research and technology capabilities on the one hand, but...     

Conjoint analysis of R&D contract agreements for industry-funded university research

Since the late nineteenth century, universities have been regarded as useful sources of technological development to stimulate economic activity. Therefore, many governments have encouraged research collaborations between universities and industries. A consequence of such collaboration in Korea, however, is that university researchers have difficulty claiming ownership of their technological developments. Typical contracts used in academia in Korea have biased benefits for industries. Research and development contract agreements that decrease negotiation efforts between the sectors of academia and industry are essential to increase the efficiency of industry-academia collaborations. In order to determine an optimal contract design, we use conjoint analysis of four attributes, including policies of ownership and compensation, indemnity responsibility, patent application and maintenance fees, and publication restrictions. The resulting preferences take into account the perspectives of both industry and academia. We expect our approach to contribute to increasingly healthy collaborations between industry and academia, which in turn will benefit industrial competition as well as the Korean economy.     

Never mind the quality feel the width: University–industry links and government financial support for innovation in small high-technology businesses in the UK and the USA

In this paper we use a size and industry matched sample of over 1,900 UK and US businesses for the period 2004–05 in the manufacturing and business services sectors to analyse the relative “strength” of the university–industry ecosystems in which these firms operate in the two economies. Our analysis shows that in both countries universities per se play a quantitatively smaller role as a source of knowledge for business innovation than either the business sector itself or a variety of organisations intermediating between the university and business sectors. Our analysis reveals a much more diffuse university–industry ecosystem in the UK in which a higher proportion of businesses claim links external to themselves in their pursuit of knowledge for innovation and a higher proportion report directly connecting with universities. US firms are more likely to access knowledge through a combination of business and intermediary sources and are less likely to have established formal collaborative or partnership agreements in the 3 years prior to the survey. We also find, however, that a higher proportion of US firms place a very high value on the connections they have with universities and are much more likely to commit resources to support such innovation related university interactions. A similar pattern of diffuse but weaker links characterise the supply of public sector financial assistance for innovation in our sample firms. UK firms are more likely to be in receipt of assistance, but receive far less per firm in absolute terms and relative to their R&D expenditures. It appears that the UK university–industry ecosystem is characterised by a greater width than quality of interaction.     

Bringing Political Science to Bear on Tropical Conservation

With the renewed international emphasis on governance for sustainable development, political scientists wishing to have an impact on global environmental problems will find significant opportunities to collaborate with practitioners. These collaborations can be very rewarding, but academics should enter them with their eyes open to the associated challenges. Bridging the worlds of research and practice entails tensions between what is true according to the research, and what is possible given the constraints of specific organizations; between the problems that practitioners need solved and the puzzles that researchers find appealing; and, importantly, between the divergent cultures that shape the expectations and incentives of academics and their counterparts.     

R&;D productivity and the organization of cluster policy: an empirical evaluation of the Industrial Cluster Project in Japan

Industrial clusters have attracted increasing attention as important locations of innovation. Therefore, several countries have started promotion policies for industrial clusters. However, there are few empirical studies on cluster policies. This paper examines the effects of the “Industrial Cluster Project” (ICP) in Japan on the R&D productivity of participants, using a unique dataset of 229 small firms, and discusses the conditions necessary for the effective organization of cluster policies. Different from former policy approaches, the ICP aims at building collaborative networks between universities and industries and supports the autonomous development of existing regional industries without direct intervention in the clustering process. Thus far, the ICP is similar to indirect support systems adopted by successful European clusters. Our estimation results suggest that participation in the cluster project alone does not affect R&D productivity. Moreover, research collaboration with a partner in the same cluster region decreases R&D productivity both in terms of the quantity and quality of patents. Therefore, in order to improve the R&D efficiency of local firms, it is also important to construct wide-range collaborative networks within and beyond the clusters, although most clusters focus on the network at a narrowly defined local level. However, cluster participants apply for more patents than others without reducing patent quality when they collaborate with national universities in the same cluster region.     

Nanotechnology and the US national innovation system: continuity and change

A substantial literature on nanotechnology innovation and commercial development has characterized several elements of these phenomena as constituting new developments in the US national innovation system. Among these elements are the (asserted) “post-academic” nature of US universities’ involvement with nanotechnology R&D, and federal funding of nanotechnology R&D on goals related to economic competitiveness. This paper challenges the “novelty” of these elements, while suggesting that other elements of nanotechnology R&D, including the extensive patenting of the results of nanotechnology-related research and the emphasis within many university-industry collaborations on patent-based channels for “technology transfer,” may indeed be new and raise questions for the long-term efficiency and innovative performance of nanotechnology-related R&D.     

The role of industrial Advisory Boards in technology transfer between universities and industry

This paper suggests that industrial Advisory Boards (IAB) have a significant, yet sometimes underestimated role in the transfer of technology between universities and industry, in the context of university-industry collaborative arrangements. Some barriers to technology transfer are described, and the role of the IABs in overcoming them is discussed, as a valuable forum for dynamic interaction between researchers, thus acting as a facilitator in the process of technology transfer.