Industrial Graduate Schools: University-Industry Interaction for Development of Absorptive Capacity

Abstract

Absorptive capacity and integration skills of firms are crucialfactors when it comes to reaping the benefits from universityindustryrelations. Education and training of individuals withboth academic and industrial experience that can act asbrokers of knowledge is therefore of great importance. Duringrecent years industrial graduate schools have been developedas an answer to this challenge. We investigate them throughan interview study with PhD students and supervisors. We alsoassess long-term impact through interviews with graduatedindividuals focusing on their use of integration skills withintheir work. We conclude that although industrial graduateschools require a multitude of favourable conditions in orderto realise their potential they are also a powerful tool fordeveloping absorptive capacities of PhD students andsupervisors. We show that positive effects of industrialgraduate schools extend in time, through increased capacitiesto e.g. participate in collaborative R&D projects or educatenew students