Success Factors in University-industry Collaborations. A comparison of a research and development project

Abstract

Abstract The thesis addresses the concept of university-industry collaboration in R&D and how this type of collaboration should be organised in order to reach success. The thesis aim is to investigate an ongoing collaboration between a university and its industry partners in the early phases of R&D, that collaborates towards finding new areas of usage of a residual product that otherwise are used for combustion to produce energy. The thesis includes how the organisation is set up in regards of important factors for a successful collaboration and to see if reality and literature are coherent. The thesis is a single case study that has used participant observation and interviews in order to get a deep understanding of the studied organisation. The research furthermore includes a comprehensive literature review of the specific field that provides research of factors that are seen as important in order to reach the objectives of the collaboration. The findings clearly illustrate the complexity to organise diverse organisations within the same project. Even though the partners have the same objectives to innovate and end up with new products they have different starting points in the collaboration. Universities are profoundly different from a general industry partner since the universities main goals are to educate and to publicize results while the industry partners in general have commercial interests with a desire to patent results. Hence the complexity lies within combining the fundamental differences of the partners into common values and mutual understanding. It is a balancing act when organising the partners so that they all have the ability to fulfil their subjective goals as well as the objective goal of the collaboration. Furthermore, it becomes evident that the reason for the industry to collaborate in this setting is not only patentability, it includes networking and knowledge transferee with a long-term point of view of innovation. It becomes clear that relationships have a profound impact on this type of collaborations where long-term relationships are desirable and often in itself an objective with the collaboration. Organisational flexibility and openness are much desired attributes of a partner in combination with complementariness since this will help bridge the gaps between the partnering organisations as well as bring a greater room for learning in to the project. The studied collaboration is well defined and well managed and most of the success factors from the literature are represented within the organisation. The case study where analysed in accordance to the findings in the literature review and culminates in concluding that there is a clear coherency between theory and reality.