![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
Abstract
Cross‐sector R&D collaboration, as exemplified by the Australian Cooperative Research Centre Program, is increasing in incidence due to government policies and corporate practices. While the benefits of such collaborations are widely promoted, the resulting relationships (typically involving companies, universities and public sector research agencies) can be difficult to manage so as to achieve beneficial outcomes for all partners. A management framework for establishing these collaborations is proposed. This framework is based on four tensions in cross‐sector collaborations, and it takes the perspective that knowledge created for mutual benefit is the common focus of these ventures.
Notes
1. OECD, Public/Private Partnerships for Innovation: Policy Rationale, Trends and Issues, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 2002.
2. See, for example, A. Kleinknecht and O. N. Reijnen, ‘Why do firms cooperate on R&D? An empirical study’, Research Policy, 21, 1992, pp. 347–60; O. Gassmann and M. von Zedtwitz, ‘New concepts and trends in international R&D organization’, Research Policy, 28, 1999, pp. 231–50; J. Hagedoorn and H. van Kranenberg, ‘Growth patterns in R&D partnerships: an exploratory statistical study’, International Journal of Industrial Organization, 21, 2003, pp. 517–31; J. Hagedoorn, A. N. Link and N. S. Vonortas, ‘Research partnerships’, Research Policy, 29, 2000, pp. 567–86; M. Richards and D. M. De Carolis, ‘Joint venture research and development activity: an analysis of the international biotechnology industry’, Journal of International Management, 9, 2003, pp. 33–49.
3. See W. Faulkner and J. Senker, ‘Making sense of diversity: public–private sector research linkages in three technologies’, Research Policy, 23, 1994, pp. 673–95; G. N. Prabhu, ‘Implementing university–industry product innovation projects’, Technovation, 19, 1999, pp. 495–505; G. S. McMillan, F. Narin and D. L. Deeds, ‘An analysis of the critical role of public science in innovation: the case of biotechnology’, Research Policy, 29, 2000, pp. 1–8; I. Feller, C. P. Ailes and J. D. Roessner, ‘Impacts of research universities on technological innovation in industry: evidence from engineering research centers’, Research Policy, 31, 2002, pp. 457–74.
4. See B. Bozeman, ‘Technological transfer and public policy: a review of research and theory’, Research Policy, 29, 2000, pp. 627–55; S. Shane, ‘Executive forum: university technology transfer to entrepreneurial companies’, Journal of Business Venturing, 17, 2002, pp. 537–52.
5. For example: K. Besgrove, Shaping Australia's Future Innovation‐A Framework Paper, Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Canberra, 1999; R. Batterham, The Chance to Change, Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Canberra, 2000; Department of Education, Science and Technology, Mapping Australian Science and Innovation‐Main Report, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2005.
6. OECD, National Innovation Systems, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 1997.
7. Cooperative Research Centre Compendium, 1998 edition, Department of Industry, Science and Tourism, Canberra, 1998.
8. Department of Education, Science and Technology, CRCs: Success Through Innovation, Issue No. 6, October 2005, p. 8.
9. T. Turpin, ‘CRCs and transdisciplinary research: what are the implications?’, Prometheus, 15, 1997, pp. 253–65; H. Etzkowitz and L. Leydesdorff, ‘The dynamics of innovation: from national systems and “Mode 2” to a triple helix of university–industry–government relations’, Research Policy, 29, 2000, pp. 109–23.
10. R. M. Cyert and P. S. Goodman, ‘Creating effective university–industry alliances: an organizational learning perspective’, Organizational Dynamics, Spring 1997, pp. 45–57.
11. As reported in the mass media, for example: A. Gome, ‘The ideas factory: brains, but no gains’, Business Review Weekly, 20 July 2001, pp. 45–9; S. Hayes, ‘Academics fail commerce’, The Australian, 12 August 2003, p. 26.
12. P. K. Couchman and L. Fulop, ‘Managing risk in cross‐sector R&D collaborations: lessons from an international case study’, Prometheus, 22, 2, 2004, pp. 151–67; L. Fulop and P. K. Couchman, ‘Facing up to the risks in commercially‐focused university–industry R&D partnerships’, Higher Education Research and Development, pp. 28–36.
13. T. K. Das and B.‐S. Teng, ‘Trust, control and risk in strategic alliances: an integrated approach’, Organization Studies, 22, 2001, pp. 251–84; P. K. Couchman, L. Fulop and L. Batchelor, ‘Managing the risks of R&D collaboration in the Australian Cooperative Research Centres Program’, a paper presented to ANZAM 2002 Enhancing Business and Government Capabilities‐Research, Knowledge and Practice, Beechworth, 4–7 December 2002.
14. P. S. Ring and A. H. Van de Ven, ‘Structuring cooperative relationships between organizations’, Strategic Management Journal, 13, 1992, pp. 483–98; P. S. Ring and A. H. Van de Ven, ‘Developmental processes of cooperative interorganizational relationships’, Academy of Management Review, 19, 1994, pp. 90–118; B. Nooteboom, ‘Design of inter‐firm relations: goals, conditions, problems and solutions’, a paper presented to the EGOS Colloquium, Budapest, 3–5 July 1997; B. Nooteboom, Inter‐Firm Alliances‐Analysis and Design, Routledge, London, 1999.
15. Nooteboom, 1999, op. cit.
16. Examples would include Cyert and Goodman, op. cit.; E. H. Gregory, ‘University–industry strategic partnerships: benefits and impediments’, Industry and Higher Education, August 1997, pp. 253–4; J. B. Burnham, ‘Evaluating industry/university research linkages’, Research Technology Management, 40, 1997, pp. 52–5; M. Champness, ‘Helping industry and universities collaborate’, Research Technology Management, 43, 2000, pp. 8–10; E. Starbuck, ‘Optimising university research collaborations’, Research Technology Management, 44, 2001, pp. 40–4; T. Barnes, I. Pashby and A. Gibbons, ‘Effective university–industry interaction: a multi‐case evaluation of collaborative R&D projects’, European Management Journal, 20, 2002, pp. 272–85; M. D. Santoro and S. C. Betts, ‘Making industry–university partnerships work’, Research Technology Management, 45, 2002, pp. 42–6.
17. As one Australian researcher has put it: ‘… industry links and university commercialisation efforts threaten traditional research and scientific values, and accepted norms of academic life including academic freedom’: G. Harman, ‘University–industry research partnerships in Australia: extent, benefits and risks’, Higher Education Research & Development, 20, 2001, pp. 245–64.
18. Starbuck, op. cit., p. 40.
19. EIRMA, Effective Collaborative R&D, European Industrial Research Management Association, Paris, 1995.
20. F. Murray, ‘Innovation as co‐evolution of scientific and technological networks: exploring tissue engineering’, Research Policy, 31, 2002, pp. 1389–403.
21. Santoro and Betts, op. cit.
22. Barnes et al., op. cit.
23. P. K. Couchman, R. Badham and M. Zanko, ‘Improving innovation processes: moving beyond universalistic prescription to encompass diversity’, Creativity and Innovation Management, 8, 1999, pp. 28–6.
24. J. Hagedoorn, ‘Understanding the rationale of strategic technology partnering: interorganizational modes of cooperation and sectoral differences’, Strategic Management Journal, 14, 1993, pp. 371–85.
25. Hagedoorn et al., op. cit.
26. For example W. M. Cohen, R. Florida, L. Randazzese and J. Walsh, ‘Industry and the academy: uneasy partners in the cause of technological advance’, in R. Noll (ed.), Challenge to the University, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 1997; N. Rosenberg and R. R. Nelson, ‘American universities and technical advance in industry’, Research Policy, 23, 1994, pp. 323–48.
27. McMillan et al., op. cit.; F. Tapon and M. Thong, ‘Research collaborations by multi‐national research oriented pharmaceutical firms: 1988–1997’, R&D Management, 29, 1999, pp. 219–31.
28. J. P. Liebeskind and A. L. Oliver, ‘From handshake to contract: intellectual property, trust, and the social structure of academic research’, in C. Lane and R. Bachmann (eds), Trust Within and Between Organizations, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.
29. A description posed on p. 275 by S. J. Kline and N. Rosenberg, ‘An overview of innovation’, in R. Landau and N. Rosenberg (eds), The Positive Sum Strategy: Harnessing Technology for Economic Growth, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 1986, pp. 275–306.
30. This was the view taken in: Department of Industry Science and Tourism, Review of Greater Commercial and Self‐funding in the Cooperative Research Centres Programme: Report of the Steering Committee (Mr Don Mercer, Dr John Stocker), Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 1998.
31. The implications have been set out in, for example, P. Dasgupta and P. David, ‘Toward a new economics of science’, Research Policy, 23, 1994, pp. 487–521.
32. J. Ziman, Prometheus Bound: Science in a Dynamic Steady State, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, p. 7.
33. M. Gibbons, C. Limoges, S. Nowotony, P. Schwartzman, P. Scotland and M. Trow, The New Production of Knowledge: the Dynamics of Science in Contemporary Societies, Sage, London, 1994.
34. Examples of such expressions of concern include D. Bok, Beyond the Ivory Tower, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1982; K. Ruscio, ‘The changing context of academic science: university–industry relations in biotechnology and the public policy implications’, Policy Studies Review, 4, 1984, pp. 259–75; Editorial, ‘Is the university–industrial complex out of control?’, Nature, 409, 6817, 2001, p. 119.
35. As Cyert and Goodman, op. cit., put it: ‘All these cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings’ (p. 48).
36. For example T. Turpin, N. Sullivan and A. Deville, Crossing Innovation Boundaries‐The Formation and Maintenance of Research Links Between Industry and Universities in Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1993; T. Turpin, D. Aylward, S. Garrett‐Jones, G. Speak, L. Grigg and R. Johnston, University and Industry Research Partnerships in Australia‐An Evaluation of ARC/DETYA Industry‐Linked Research Schemes, Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Canberra, 1999.
37. For example P. S. Ring and A. H. Van de Ven, ‘Legal and managerial dimensions of transactions’, in A. H. Van de Ven, H. Angle and M. S. Poole (eds), Research on the Management of Innovation: The Minnesota Studies, Harper Row, New York, 1989; J. Häusler, H.‐W. Hohn and S. Lütz, ‘Contingencies of innovation networks: a case study of successful interfirm R&D collaboration’, Research Policy, 23, 1995, pp. 47–66; L. D. Browning, J. M. Beyer and J. C. Shetler, ‘Building cooperation in a competitive industry: Sematech and the semiconductor industry’, Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1995, pp. 113–51.
38. K. Kreiner and M. Schultz, ‘Informal collaboration in R&D: the formation of networks across organizations’, Organization Studies, 14, 1993, pp. 189–209; Liebeskind and Oliver, op. cit.; M. D. Santoro and P. Saparito, ‘The role of trust in industry–university collaborative ventures: antecedents and outcomes’, a paper presented to the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, August 2000.
39. Liebeskind and Oliver, op. cit.
40. We have derived this term from C. Lindblom and D. K. Cohen, Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1979.
41. E. Basri, ‘Technological collaboration: dimensions and issues’, in Proceedings of the Australian Industrial Research Group Conference ‘Collaborative Innovation’, Sydney, February 2001.
42. EIRMA, 1995, op. cit.
43. Ibid.
44. Globemen (2002) ‘Global engineering and manufacturing in enterprise networks’, available at the project website: http://cic.vtt.fi/projects/globemen/public.html (accessed March 2006).
45. Basri, op. cit.
46. EIRMA, ‘Virtual R&D organisations’, in Summary of the Proceedings of the Round Table Meeting, European Industrial Research Management Association, Dresden, Germany, 13–14 November 1997.
47. B. Jackson, ‘International collaboration in manufacturing’, Engineers Australia, January 1999, pp. 26–9.
48. M. Wainwright, ‘The drivers of collaborative innovation’, in Proceedings of the Australian Industrial Research Group Conference ‘Collaborative Innovation’, Sydney, February 2001.
49. Globemen, op. cit.
50. P. K. Couchman and L. Fulop, ‘Collaborative R&D project partner experiences in the Australian CRC Program: a theoretical framework’, in Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, Otago University, New Zealand, 8–11 December 2004.
51. P. K. Couchman and R. Beckett, ‘Managing effective cross‐sector R&D collaborations’, in Proceedings of the 10th Colloquium of the Asia–Pacific Researchers in Organisational Studies (APROS), Oaxaca, Mexico, 7–10 December 2003.