IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i7p3866-d527688.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Two Sides of the Same Coin. University-Industry Collaboration and Open Innovation as Enhancers of Firm Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Joana Costa

    (Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism (DEGEIT), University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
    Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
    Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESCTEC), R. Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal)

  • Ana Rita Neves

    (Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism (DEGEIT), University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal)

  • João Reis

    (Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
    Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Engineering, Lusófona University, Campo Grande, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal
    Research Center in Industrial Engineering, Management and Sustainability (EIGeS), Lusófona University, Campo Grande, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal)

Abstract

Open innovation is proved to be determinant in the rationalization of sustainable innovation ecosystems. Firms, universities, governments, user communities and the overall environment are called to contribute to this dynamic process. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of open innovation on firms’ performance and to empirically assess whether university-industry collaborations are complementary or substitutes for this activity. Primary data were collected from a survey encompassing 908 firms, and then combined with performance indicators from SABI (Spanish and Portuguese business information). Econometric estimations were run to evaluate the role of open innovation and university-industry collaboration in the firm innovative propensity and performance. Results highlight the importance of diversity in collaborations with the academia and inbound open innovation strategy as enhancers of firm performance. The two activities reinforce each other. By testing the impact of open innovation practices on company performance, the need for heterogeneity in terms of contact type and university is also demonstrated. Findings cast light on the need to reformulate existing policy packages, reinforcing the ties with academia as well as the promotion of open innovation strategies. The connection to the innovation ecosystem needs to be further encouraged as well as the promotion of persistent connections with the knowledge sources in an open and multilateral framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Joana Costa & Ana Rita Neves & João Reis, 2021. "Two Sides of the Same Coin. University-Industry Collaboration and Open Innovation as Enhancers of Firm Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-18, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3866-:d:527688
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3866/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/7/3866/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Bellucci & L. Pennacchio, 2016. "University knowledge and firm innovation: evidence from European countries," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 730-752, August.
    2. Dahlander, Linus & Gann, David M., 2010. "How open is innovation?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 699-709, July.
    3. D'Este, P. & Patel, P., 2007. "University-industry linkages in the UK: What are the factors underlying the variety of interactions with industry?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 1295-1313, November.
    4. Maribel Guerrero & David Urbano, 2012. "The development of an entrepreneurial university," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 43-74, February.
    5. Mansfield, Edwin, 1995. "Academic Research Underlying Industrial Innovations:," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 55-65, February.
    6. Xie, Xuemei & Wang, Hongwei, 2020. "How can open innovation ecosystem modes push product innovation forward? An fsQCA analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 29-41.
    7. Loet Leydesdorff & Han Woo Park & Balazs Lengyel, 2014. "A routine for measuring synergy in university–industry–government relations: mutual information as a Triple-Helix and Quadruple-Helix indicator," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(1), pages 27-35, April.
    8. Perkmann, Markus & Tartari, Valentina & McKelvey, Maureen & Autio, Erkko & Broström, Anders & D’Este, Pablo & Fini, Riccardo & Geuna, Aldo & Grimaldi, Rosa & Hughes, Alan & Krabel, Stefan & Kitson, Mi, 2013. "Academic engagement and commercialisation: A review of the literature on university–industry relations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 423-442.
    9. Siegel, Donald S. & Waldman, David & Link, Albert, 2003. "Assessing the impact of organizational practices on the relative productivity of university technology transfer offices: an exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 27-48, January.
    10. Bruneel, Johan & D'Este, Pablo & Salter, Ammon, 2010. "Investigating the factors that diminish the barriers to university-industry collaboration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 858-868, September.
    11. Thursby, Jerry G & Jensen, Richard & Thursby, Marie C, 2001. "Objectives, Characteristics and Outcomes of University Licensing: A Survey of Major U.S. Universities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 26(1-2), pages 59-72, January.
    12. Markus Perkmann & Kathryn Walsh, 2009. "The two faces of collaboration: impacts of university-industry relations on public research," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 18(6), pages 1033-1065, December.
    13. Albert N. Link & Donald S. Siegel & Barry Bozeman, 2007. "An empirical analysis of the propensity of academics to engage in informal university technology transfer ," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(4), pages 641-655, August.
    14. Berbegal-Mirabent, Jasmina & Sánchez García, José Luís & Ribeiro-Soriano, D. Enrique, 2015. "University–industry partnerships for the provision of R&D services," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1407-1413.
    15. Bodas Freitas, Isabel Maria & Geuna, Aldo & Rossi, Federica, 2013. "Finding the right partners: Institutional and personal modes of governance of university–industry interactions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 50-62.
    16. Karlsson, Charlie & Tavassoli, Sam, 2015. "Innovation Strategies and Firm Performance," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 401, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    17. Person, Ann E. & Rosenbaum, James E., 2006. "Educational outcomes of labor-market linking and job placement for students at public and private 2-year colleges," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 412-429, August.
    18. Joana Costa & Carlos Rodrigues, 2020. "Why innovative firms do not rely on universities as innovation sources?," Global Business and Economics Review, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 22(4), pages 351-374.
    19. Nicholas Ind & Oriol Iglesias & Stefan Markovic, 2017. "The co-creation continuum: from tactical market research tool to strategic collaborative innovation method," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(4), pages 310-321, August.
    20. Jason Owen-Smith & Walter W. Powell, 2004. "Knowledge Networks as Channels and Conduits: The Effects of Spillovers in the Boston Biotechnology Community," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 5-21, February.
    21. Fernández-Esquinas, Manuel & Pinto, Hugo & Yruela, Manuel Pérez & Pereira, Tiago Santos, 2016. "Tracing the flows of knowledge transfer: Latent dimensions and determinants of university–industry interactions in peripheral innovation systems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 113(PB), pages 266-279.
    22. Federico Moretti, 2019. "“Open” Lab? Studying the Implementation of Open Innovation Practices in a University Laboratory," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(01), pages 1-25, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alex de Lima Teodoro da Penha & Samuel Vinícius Bonato & Joana Baleeiro Passos & Eduardo da Silva Fernandes & Cínthia Kulpa & Carla Schwengber ten Caten, 2024. "Navigating the Urgency: An Open Innovation Project of Protective Equipment Development from a Quadruple Helix Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-32, February.
    2. Hao Jing & Guimin Qu & Ning Qi, 2023. "Influence of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Open Innovation of Military-Civilian Integration Enterprises in China: The Mediating Effect of Organization Legitimacy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-15, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joana Costa & João C.O. Matias, 2020. "Open Innovation 4.0 as an Enhancer of Sustainable Innovation Ecosystems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Adegbile, Abiodun Samuel & Sarpong, David & Kolade, Oluwaseun, 2021. "Environments for Joint University-Industry Laboratories (JUIL): Micro-level dimensions and research implications," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    3. Perkmann, Markus & Tartari, Valentina & McKelvey, Maureen & Autio, Erkko & Broström, Anders & D’Este, Pablo & Fini, Riccardo & Geuna, Aldo & Grimaldi, Rosa & Hughes, Alan & Krabel, Stefan & Kitson, Mi, 2013. "Academic engagement and commercialisation: A review of the literature on university–industry relations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 423-442.
    4. Barry Bozeman & Daniel Fay & Catherine Slade, 2013. "Research collaboration in universities and academic entrepreneurship: the-state-of-the-art," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 1-67, February.
    5. Michele O’Dwyer & Raffaele Filieri & Lisa O’Malley, 2023. "Establishing successful university–industry collaborations: barriers and enablers deconstructed," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 900-931, June.
    6. Adele Parmentola & Marco Ferretti & Eva Panetti, 0. "Exploring the university-industry cooperation in a low innovative region. What differences between low tech and high tech industries?," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-28.
    7. Zhiyan Zhao & Anders Broström & Jianfeng Cai, 2020. "Promoting academic engagement: university context and individual characteristics," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 304-337, February.
    8. He, Vivianna Fang & von Krogh, Georg & Sirén, Charlotta & Gersdorf, Thomas, 2021. "Asymmetries between partners and the success of university-industry research collaborations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(10).
    9. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Luca Secondi & Enza Setteducati & Alessio Ancaiani, 2014. "Participation and commitment in third-party research funding: evidence from Italian Universities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 169-198, April.
    10. Victoria Galan-Muros & Todd Davey, 2019. "The UBC ecosystem: putting together a comprehensive framework for university-business cooperation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 1311-1346, August.
    11. Adele Parmentola & Marco Ferretti & Eva Panetti, 2021. "Exploring the university-industry cooperation in a low innovative region. What differences between low tech and high tech industries?," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 1469-1496, September.
    12. Min, Jae-Woong & Vonortas, Nicholas S. & Kim, YoungJun, 2019. "Commercialization of transferred public technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 10-20.
    13. Nasirov, Shukhrat & Joshi, Amol M., 2023. "Minding the communications gap: How can universities signal the availability and value of their scientific knowledge to commercial organizations?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    14. Banal-Estañol, Albert & Jofre-Bonet, Mireia & Lawson, Cornelia, 2015. "The double-edged sword of industry collaboration: Evidence from engineering academics in the UK," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1160-1175.
    15. Michaël Bikard & Keyvan Vakili & Florenta Teodoridis, 2019. "When Collaboration Bridges Institutions: The Impact of University–Industry Collaboration on Academic Productivity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(2), pages 426-445, March.
    16. A. Bellucci & L. Pennacchio, 2016. "University knowledge and firm innovation: evidence from European countries," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 730-752, August.
    17. Iorio, Roberto & Labory, Sandrine & Rentocchini, Francesco, 2017. "The importance of pro-social behaviour for the breadth and depth of knowledge transfer activities: An analysis of Italian academic scientists," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 497-509.
    18. Charlotta Dahlborg & Danielle Lewensohn & Rickard Danell & Carl Johan Sundberg, 2017. "To invent and let others innovate: a framework of academic patent transfer modes," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 538-563, June.
    19. Yuandi Wang & Die Hu & Weiping Li & Yiwei Li & Qiang Li, 2015. "Collaboration strategies and effects on university research: evidence from Chinese universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 103(2), pages 725-749, May.
    20. Atta-Owusu, Kwadwo & Fitjar, Rune Dahl & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2021. "What drives university-industry collaboration? Research excellence or firm collaboration strategy?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:7:p:3866-:d:527688. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.