University-Industry Collaboration on Technological Innovation: An Assessment of Outcomes

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The last decade has seen significant growth in university-industry collaboration in knowledge and technology transfer. The purpose of this research is to document the extent to which universities and industry mutually benefit from their research and transfer collaboration, and at what possible costs. The investigation assumes that the collaboration is fundamentally a `two-way` street where the decision for collaboration is a balancing act for the parties. The future of collaboration as public policy therefore depends on how it benefits both sectors. Under examination is the hypothesis that, while there are substantial benefits, actual or perceived, to both, the nature and extent of benefits vary in accordance with the type of collaborative activities (nature of technologies or projects), organizational characteristics (e.g., firm size), interaction mechanisms, and the characteristics of the interacting individuals. The study design focuses on the interacting population or `interaction sets` as a basic unit of analysis. It uses mailed survey questionnaires, telephone interviews, and selected site visits. The sample is a three-stage sequential strategy -- a pre-survey questionnaire to academic department chairs from whom to identify faculty collaborators, moving to a selection of faculty collaborators, and finally selecting their industrial partners. Faculty collaborators are sought from biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, computer science, materials science and engineering, and mechanical engineering. Interim and final results of the study will be presented at appropriate conferences and submitted for publication. Upon request, the data will also be made available to other researchers for further analysis and classroom instruction.