What prevents PROS from making KNOTS? Evidence for nano-researchers

ABSTRACT

The current study examines the barriers faced by research organisations in nanoscience when transferring knowledge to the industrial sector. Two are the questions that guide this research: Does the context play a role in the effectiveness of knowledge transfer activities? Does the transfer of scientific output in nanoscience depend on the type of organisation? Three geographic areas are compared: the Basque Country (Spain), Uusimaa (Finland) and Sydsverige (Sweden). A survey to the research groups in the three locations was conducted, together with interviews with each group’s leaders. Quantitative and qualitative methods are thus used to interpret the information collected. The results indicate that the main barriers to knowledge transfer come from the innovation system, rather than from the organisation to which the research group belongs. The study discusses a series of trade-offs facing policy makers in charge of implementing science, technology and innovation.

KEYWORDS:

• Nanoscience
• knowledge transfer
• barriers
• research group

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the editor and the two anonymous referees for their feedback and the comments provided on earlier versions of the paper. We also appreciate the commitment and cooperation of all of the scientists who responded to our questionnaire and those involved as interviewees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Jon Barrutia is Professor of Management and Business Economics at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao. He has extensive academic and professional experience in various high-level academic and administrative positions. In 2017 he was appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Management and Business Economics at the University of the Basque Country. E-mail: [email protected].

Goio Etxebarria is full Professor in the Department of Applied Economics I, University of the Basque Country in Bilbao (Spain). His research has been mainly focused on regional economic development. His seminal work on Regional Innovation Systems, together with Professors Phil Cooke and Mikel Gómez Uranga, is regarded as one of the key scholarly contributions in the innovation studies community. E-mail: [email protected].

Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitia is lecturer at the University of Deusto in San Sebastian (Spain). He was previously Assistant Professor at the Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University (Sweden) and visiting researcher at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) in Espoo (Finland). His research and teaching interests are related to the fields of innovation policy and innovation management. E-mail: [email protected].

ORCID

Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1975-2555

Notes

1 Nanoscience refers to the deliberate manipulation of molecular-sized matter below 100 nanometres.

2 Environmental or institutional barriers comprise those factors that are not susceptible of being modified by organisational decisions (e.g. political, regulatory, legal, sociocultural, geographical).

3 Organisational barriers include those factors that are susceptible of being modified by organisational decisions (i.e. within firms, universities, technology centres, etc.)

4 Other organisations, such as the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation and the Academy of Finland have also strongly supported nano-research since the 1990s.

5 Due to the fact that the number of observations we could get from the research groups in the Basque Country was larger than in the Nordic regions, we have considered the Nordic area as one entity, despite we acknowledge the differences between the two regions.

6 The questionnaire was piloted with several research groups in the Basque country in January and February 2010.

7 ANOVA allows to analyze if the differences among groups are significant. In our case, through the application of the ANOVA we are able to identify: (i) which of the barriers to KNOTS perceived by Basque research groups are statistically significant from those of the Nordic counterparts; and (ii) which of the barriers to KNOTS perceived by university department are statistically significant from those of specialised S&T centres.

8 This result is in line with the findings of Algieri, Aquino, and Succurro (2013) in the Italian context, who did neither find any significant influence of universities in explaining the creation of academic spin-offs (396).

Additional information

Funding

The SPRI and the Basque Government Department of Industry are recognised for financially supporting this research under the SAIOTEK programme (SA-2010/00048 NANOCOMP project). Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitia acknowledges financial support from the Basque Government Department of Education, Language policy and Culture (Reference IT 885-16); Eusko Jaurlaritza.