Engaging Excellence? Effects of Faculty Quality on University Engagement with Industry
45 Pages Posted: 20 Nov 2010 Last revised: 1 May 2013
Date Written: January 16, 2010
Abstract
We investigate how the research standing of universities informs academics' engagement with industry via collaborative research, contract research and consulting. We argue that the establishment of university-industry relationships is informed by three factors: faculty perceived complementarity with academic research; faculty efforts to attract industrial funding for research; and industry preference to work with highly skilled and reputable faculty. Using a dataset that covers all UK universities, we can identify three matching scenarios. In technology-oriented disciplines, faculty quality is positively related to industry involvement. In basic scientific disciplines we find a threshold effect in terms of faculty quality being positively related to industry involvement except in the case of the very best researchers. In the social sciences, we find a mostly negative relationship between faculty quality and particularly the more applied forms of industry involvement. The implication for science policy makers and university managers is that differential approaches to promoting university-industry relationships are required.
Keywords: University-Industry Relations, Faculty Quality, Collaborative Research, Joint Research, Contract Research, Academic Consulting, Technology Transfer
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