Closing the ( )Space: A case study of University-Business Cooperation

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study was threefold. First, assist with the development and definition of The(?)Space concept, an innovation platform intended to bridge the gap between actors in society. Second, increase the study’s participants’ understanding of university-­‐business cooperation for future cooperative ventures. And third, contribute to research on university-­‐business cooperation, especially by adding students’ perspective on cooperation. Design/methodology/approach – This is a case study presenting a qualitative analysis of university-­‐business cooperation between students from the MATIX graduate programme at Gothenburg University and companies in the society. Semi-­‐structured interviews with the representatives from all the actors involved, i.e. MATIX students, MATIX coordinators and participating companies, were used as the main method of data collection. Findings – The findings were analyzed for all actors in the cooperation from four perspectives: motivations to engage, benefits, obstacles and suggested changes. The results revealed that the companies’ key motivation and benefit were to get students’ perspectives and ideas on firm-­‐specific problems. The MATIX programme’s key motivation and benefit were the ability to offer its students a chance to gain practical experience by working with dynamic firms. The students’ main benefits were to gain practical experience of working with dynamic firms in the society. All actors involved perceived established relations to be one of the major benefits as well. The main obstacle of the cooperation was lacking communication between all the parties and the suggested key change was to initiate and have a continuous communication throughout the whole cooperation. Originality/value – This study plays a role in adding findings to a field of study that especially lacks the students’ point of view. Furthermore, since the study was triadic in its nature and investigated all the participants’ perspectives on the cooperation it was possible to compare the participants’ understanding of each other’s motivations and drivers.