University-Industry Knowledge Transfer: Channels of Sport Research Interaction

Abstract

The reputation of academic programs is increasingly defined in terms of both the generation of high-quality research and the success in transferring scientific findings into commercial development. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the particular channels of research interaction between sport academia and sport companies. The purpose of this study was to assess, for the first time, the degree to which different channels of research interaction could be used to inform the research involvement levels of sport organizations with sport academia. Information was gathered from 292 sport managers working for United States sport companies. The results provide evidence that sport managers who collaborated with sport management academia are more concerned with working on joint research projects with sport management scholars and departments than with academic engagement in patenting and licenses, or involvement in networking, scholars’ mobility, and publication research channels.