Do University-Industry co-publication volumes correspond with university funding from business firms?

Trabajo presentado a la 19th Science and Technology Indicators Conference: "Context counts: Pathways to Master Big and Little Data" celebrada en leiden (Paises Bajos) del 3 al 9 de 2014.Analysts of university-industry interaction sometimes measure it through numbers of university-industry co-publications (UICs), because of their relative availability and international comparability. However, we do not know whether UICs correspond to a more direct measure of interaction: university funding from firms. We propose a conceptual model on four types of relationships between UICs and university funding from firms, emphasising the interactive nature of their relation. We test the model with UIC and income data from the Polytechnic University of Valencia at individual level: around 6-7% of researchers participating in projects with firms were authors of UICs published in 2008-2011; and around 27% of those UIC authors were participating in projects with firms during that period. Overall, we do not find evidence of any significant positive correlation between UIC output and university funding from the business sector in general. The one exception is a minority of authors who participate in business-funded projects, where we found a positive association of current UICs and business funding.Peer Reviewe

Delocalisation patterns in University-Industry interaction: Evidence from the 6th R&D Framework Programme

Increasing university-industry interaction (UII) and university contribution to the local economy are compatibleconventional wisdom would say. However, similar to other university activities, interaction with industry may be limited due to a lack of absorptive capacity in local firms. The data of those participating in the European Union's (EU's) Sixth R&D Framework Programme (FP6) were used to obtain values for the number and, notably, the budgets of UII projects at the regional level for the EU27. Two types of interactions were considered: inside and outside the region. Our analysis indicates that universities from regions whose firms have low absorptive capacity participate more often in FP6 projects with firms outside the region. Our results highlight the value of policies that facilitate firm R&D to enhance collaboration with regional universities.Azagra Caro, JM.; Pontikakis, D.; Varga, A. (2013). Delocalisation patterns in University-Industry interaction: Evidence from the 6th R&D Framework Programme. European Planning Studies. 21(10):1676-1701. doi:10.1080/09654313.2012.722949S16761701211

Leveraging knowledge as a competitive asset? The intensity, performance and structure of universities’ entrepreneurial knowledge exchange activities at a regional level

© 2016, The Author(s). Universities are no longer considered to be isolated islands of knowledge, but as institutions increasingly engaged with a range of external partners through entrepreneurial activities. This paper examines the associations between the intensity and performance of knowledge exchange activities undertaken in UK universities with non-academic actors. Drawing on data concerning the structural factors of interactions of universities in the UK with external partners, the paper sheds further light on the nature of these activities through a prism of competitive and uncompetitive regions in order to better understand how universities may be able to leverage both their knowledge and partnerships more effectively as competitive assets. On the one hand, it is found that academics in uncompetitive regions are more intensively engaged in entrepreneurial activities but generate less income from them than their counterparts in competitive regions, suggesting that there are differences in the income-generating capacity of academics across regions. On the other hand, academic knowledge is found to be more strongly bounded within a certain distance in uncompetitive regions whilst geographical distance seems less of a hindrance to academics in competitive regions

El equilibrio entre actividades interactivas y no interactivas de los profesores universitarios

17 pages, 3 tables.[EN] We develop a model of individual choice in which faculty member maximises a utility function. We find an interior optimum of interactive effort that depends on parameters of the utility function, wage, net revenue from interactive activities, relative weight given to interactive activities in the determination of prestige and knowledge contribution by interactive activities. The model is tested econometrically by using a sample of 380 university professors from the Valencian Community, a Spanish region. Individuals respond to nonmonetary rather than monetary incentives and to the difficulty of producing non-interactive rather than interactive knowledge. We detect the possible existence of rationing, since optimum effort and real interaction depend on different variables. Policy initiatives may see the promotion (or disincentive) of university-industry interaction as a medium-long term target rather than a short-term one and may be aware of situations arising from rationing.[ES] Se desarrolla un modelo económico de elección individual en el que el profesor universitario maximiza una función de utilidad. Se obtiene un óptimo interior de esfuerzo interactivo que depende de los parámetros de la función de utilidad, el salario, los ingresos derivados de las actividades interactivas, su ponderación en la determinación del prestigio y su contribución al conocimiento. El modelo se contrasta econométricamente utilizando una muestra de 380 profesores de la Comunidad Valenciana, una región española. El profesor responde más a incentivos no monetarios que a monetarios y a la dificultad de producir conocimiento no interactivo frente a interactivo. Además, es posible la existencia de racionamiento, ya que la interacción deseada y la real difieren. Las iniciativas de política podrían plantearse la acción sobre la interacción universidad-empresa como un objetivo a largo plazo y la detección de situaciones que se derivan de un posible racionamiento.Peer reviewe