Factors affecting university-industry interactions: evidences from Southern Italy

This paper is aimed at analyze factors, motivations and mechanisms affecting the university-industry collaborative forms of interactions (research contracts and consulting activities) that is the activities that firms give to... [ view full abstract ]

This paper is aimed at analyze factors, motivations and mechanisms affecting the university-industry collaborative forms of interactions (research contracts and consulting activities) that is the activities that firms give to universities and that are regulated by specific contracts. In Italy, such interactions cover more than 30% of the research funding. They are characterized by high relational involvement of the parties, which strongly collaborate over a limited period of time. The results of these activities are useful for both the firms, allowing them to solve technological problems, and the researchers, having the opportunity to apply their knowledge to new contexts and cases.
We used data retrieved from 88 firms that collaborated with at least one Department of the University of Naples Federico II. Firms belong to different sectors and to different size category, thus results will cover interactions activities based on those two elements. We referred to the two process influencing effectiveness of research services (Perkmann and Walsh, 2007): search and match processes and organization and management of relationships. Results will offer new lights on how to build policy initiatives that could contribute to building new mechanisms to integrate the worlds of scientific research and application.