Services Science with a Focus on Academia and Company Collaboration

Many countries in the western world are trying to encourage government, academia, and companies to work more closely together in an effort to enhance the innovation process. Academics benefit from research funding from companies and public organizations and companies benefit from the assistance they receive from academics in their business development efforts. Companies need continual renovation, but time for such renewal is always limited. They tend to have a short-term perspective and most often strive for new knowledge and technology to apply or use in their own business rather than to co-create with scholars or to include other companies in different research programs. Sometimes the information is proprietary and sharing knowledge and experiences may harm the competitive advantage. It is often easier to focus on the risks rather than to identify opportunities. If there is no clear basis for collaboration which goes beyond documents, formal agreements, and schedules with roles and responsibilities, we cannot expect many results within the service research field over a longer period of time. People collaborate with people — not with organizations!