Understanding intentions towards seeking university-business partnerships – analysing four european cases

Abstract

It is an important economic and social issue for universities to provide value for their communities by seeking and maintaining partnerships with local firms. This paper analyses institutions of different national economies. It systematises the differences and similarities in the communication of universities aiming to partnering. To this end, we present four European cases from France, Germany, Hungary and Poland. The methodology lies in its grounded theory approach to a continuous multi-case analysis. Our hypotheses are as follows: There are role differences of universities in the observed cases (H1). There are different understandings behind fruitful university-business partnerships (H2). The rate of diversification in local industries effects the presence and types of university services and business partnering activity (H3). Data hubs were extracted from institutional communications and integrated with local economic data input. The novel approach of applying the grounded theory supports complex observation. Notions of fruitful partnerships are institution-specific, but we identify two opposite perspectives of strategies to run efficient university-business partnering. The structure of the local industrial environment, research output and university-business interactions have definable mutual effects.