Seminario di Einar Rasmussen

ore 11 - SALA SEMINARI – I° PIANO, PALAZZO LEVI CASES, VIA DEL SANTO 33

15.12.2016

The interplay of social capital dimensions in university-industry collaboration: Overcoming the experience barrier

Seminario di Einar Rasmussen, Nord University, Bodø 

The use of university-industry collaboration in the innovation process is viewed as a major driver of firm competitiveness. However, the organizational dynamics underlying successful external relationships remain poorly understood. Using longitudinal case studies of 15 R&D projects, we examine how firms with different experiences in collaborating with universities and public research organizations manage to successfully collaborate in university-industry innovation projects through the development of different social capital dimensions. We find that experienced firms build external collaborations through multiple, diverse connections based on cognitive social capital that are compensated with relational social capital over time. Less-experienced firms initially base their university collaborations on few and stable connections based on relational social capital, which are further reinforced by developing cognitive social capital over time. With this we theorize on the structure, content and interplay of different dimensions of social capital in university-industry collaborations over time. Our study provides important implications for how to manage collaborative innovation projects, particularly concerning how less-experienced firms can develop successful collaborations with university partners.