Examining alliance management capabilities in university-industry collaboration

Effective university-industry technology transfer requires universities to maintain and strengthen research and technology capabilities on the one hand, but also to develop and strengthen management capabilities to build and manage relationships with external partners on the other hand. This research seeks to advance the knowledge on university-industry collaboration by examining how managerial routines that in sum reflect the concept of alliance management capability influence success of outward university technology transfer. The results of an empirical study with academics from different universities in Germany offer insights into net effects and configurational effects of routines to manage interorganizational collaboration on technology transfer success. The findings indicate that academic units’ alliance management capability has a significant positive effect on technology transfer success. In addition, the findings indicate different configurations of alliance management routines, reflecting alternative, consistently sufficient pathways to technology transfer success. This knowledge contributes to current debates by disclosing important predictors of successful university-industry collaboration. In addition, it informs decision makers in universities about how to configure management systems to govern outward technology transfer activity

On the role of empathy in customer-employee interactions

While the service literature repeatedly emphasizes the role of empathy in service interactions, studies on empathy in customeremployee interactions are nearly absent. This study defines and conceptualizes employee and customer empathy as multidimensional constructs and empirically investigates their impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. A quantitative study based on dyadic data and a multilevel modeling approach finds support for two effects of empathy in service interactions. The study reveals that customer empathy strengthens the positive effect of employee empathy on customer satisfaction, leading to more "symbiotic interactions." The findings also indicate that empathic customers are more likely to respond to a dissatisfying encounter with "forgiveness," in the sense that customer empathy is able to mitigate negative effects of customer dissatisfaction on customer loyalty. From these empirical results, the authors derive several implications for service research and the management of service encounters. In particular, the present study provides a valuable basis for strategies of "interaction routing," that is, matching customers and employees on the basis of their psychological profiles to create smooth and satisfying service interactions. The authors elaborate on approaches to implement this strategy in service organizations

Adaptionsbarrieren im Technologietransfer – Begriff, Relevanz und Implikationen für das Marketing

Der Erfolg eines Technologietransfers hängt unter anderem von der Bereitschaft und Fähigkeit potenzieller Anwender zur Akzeptanz der zu transferierenden Technologie ab. Während die Literatur dem Prozess des Technologietransfers große Aufmerksamkeit widmet, gibt es vergleichsweise wenige Erkenntnisse zum Management von Akzeptanzbarrieren und Kommunikationsmaßnahmen zur Bewältigung dieser Barrieren. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es, diese Barrieren näher zu untersuchen und Kommunikationsinhalte und -instrumente zu betrachten, die diese Barrieren wirkungsvoll überwinden helfen. Der vorliegende Beitrag diskutiert daher den Stand der Literatur zur Adaption von Innovationen und zur Förderung einer Innovationsadaption durch Kommunikationsinhalte und -instrumente. Am Beispiel einer neuartigen Fügetechnologie werden Maßnahmen für eine zielgerichtete Vermittlung von Informationen zur Förderung ihrer Adaption durch potenzielle Anwender dargestellt. Der Beitrag endet mit einer Zusammenfassung und einem Ausblick auf weitere Forschungsfragen

On the role of alliance management capability, organizational compatibility, and interaction quality in interorganizational technology transfer

Interorganizational technology transfer (ITT) is a key component of firms' innovation processes. ITT involves purposeful, goal-oriented interactions between two or more organizations to exchange technological knowledge and/or artifacts and rights. Using the relational view, this study develops and empirically tests a research framework that incorporates key factors of technology transfer success to answer three questions: (1) How do various managerial routines and procedures that as a whole reflect a firm's alliance management capability influence interaction quality in ITT? (2) How does interaction quality in turn influence technology transfer success? (3) Which configurations of organizational and interactional factors contribute to technology transfer success? By examining the causal chain from alliance management capability through interorganizational interaction quality to technology transfer success, this study explains linkages between important antecedents and consequences of interaction quality and thus contributes to a better understanding of the interorganizational exchange processes that determine technology transfer success