Universities as internationalization catalysts: reversing roles in university–industry collaboration

Simone Corsi; Feranita Feranita; Mat Hughes; Alex Wilson

doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12676

Universities as internationalization catalysts: reversing roles in university–industry collaboration

Simone Corsi^*
, Feranita Feranita
, Mat Hughes
, Alex Wilson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Queen's Business School (QBS)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

61 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

University–industry (U-I) collaboration is vital to the development of society. However, this important interaction has become something of a caricature whereby a sequential and unidirectional relationship exists, with universities creating knowledge and industries commercializing it. We address this issue by using the triple helix (TH) perspective and the network-revised Uppsala model of internationalization to demonstrate how this relationship can be reversed. We present an embedded longitudinal case study of a UK–China innovation programme, run by a UK university with the aim of supporting the development of 62 collaborative innovation projects between 58 UK small and medium enterprises and Chinese organizations. The results reveal a pressing need to revisit universities’ third mission: the transfer of academic knowledge to industry. The findings demonstrate universities’ role as internationalization catalysts for firms engaged in U-I collaboration. This signals an important and underexplored component of the TH perspective. The knowledge exchange type in U-I relationships shows a possible reversal in firm and university roles, where knowledge and technology are contributed by firms, and access to markets is orchestrated by universities, which become internationalization platforms.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1992-2014
Number of pages	23
Journal	British Journal of Management
Volume	34
Issue number	4
Early online date	14 Nov 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12676
Publication status	Published - Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The first is that the (Kolesnikov , 2019 ; Youtie and Shapira, 2017 ). The university had a particularly strong and successful sectorial and regional focus: environmental science in Guangdong province. This was supported by UKU academics collaborating with Chinese research institutions and culminated in funding for one of four UK‐government‐funded between 2009 and 2011. These projects allowed UKU to develop key research collaborations with Chinese research institutions and to establish the first international research collaboration that involved industry in the two countries. The strengthening of UKU academics’ collaboration in environmental science with Guangdong‐based academics led to the 2011 formalization of this partnership into a joint research centre based in Guangzhou and directed by a UKU academic. collaboration of UKU and Chinese academics evolved into institutionalized research ventures et al. UK–China Science Bridge Projects

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. British Journal of Management published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Academy of Management.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Business,Management and Accounting
Strategy and Management
Management of Technology and Innovation

Access to Document

10.1111/1467-8551.12676Licence: CC BY

Universities as internationalization catalysts: reversing roles in university–industry collaboration
Copyright 2023 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 2.22 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "University–industry (U-I) collaboration is vital to the development of society. However, this important interaction has become something of a caricature whereby a sequential and unidirectional relationship exists, with universities creating knowledge and industries commercializing it. We address this issue by using the triple helix (TH) perspective and the network-revised Uppsala model of internationalization to demonstrate how this relationship can be reversed. We present an embedded longitudinal case study of a UK–China innovation programme, run by a UK university with the aim of supporting the development of 62 collaborative innovation projects between 58 UK small and medium enterprises and Chinese organizations. The results reveal a pressing need to revisit universities{\textquoteright} third mission: the transfer of academic knowledge to industry. The findings demonstrate universities{\textquoteright} role as internationalization catalysts for firms engaged in U-I collaboration. This signals an important and underexplored component of the TH perspective. The knowledge exchange type in U-I relationships shows a possible reversal in firm and university roles, where knowledge and technology are contributed by firms, and access to markets is orchestrated by universities, which become internationalization platforms.",

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Universities as internationalization catalysts: reversing roles in university–industry collaboration

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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