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

在过去的十年中，大学与行业在知识和技术转让方面的合作取得了显著增长。这项研究的目的是记录大学和产业界从他们的研究和转移合作中互惠的程度，以及可能的成本。调查认为，这种合作基本上是双向的，合作的决定是各方的平衡行为。因此，协作作为公共政策的未来取决于它如何使这两个部门受益。正在审查的假设是，虽然对两者都有实际或感知的实质性好处，但惠益的性质和程度根据协作活动的类型(技术或项目的性质)、组织特征(例如公司规模)、相互作用机制和相互作用的个人的特征而有所不同。研究设计将交互作用的群体或‘交互作用集合’作为分析的基本单位。它使用邮寄的调查问卷、电话采访和精选的现场访问。样本是一个分三个阶段的顺序策略--对学术部门负责人进行预调查问卷，从中确定教师合作者，然后选择教师合作者，最后选择他们的行业合作伙伴。学院的合作者来自生物、化学、化学工程、计算机科学、材料科学与工程以及机械工程。研究的中期和最后结果将在适当的会议上提出，并提交出版。应要求，这些数据还将提供给其他研究人员，以供进一步分析和课堂教学。

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.