The challenges of connecting science-industry in peripheral regions: researchers' attitudes and organizational and institutional features as determinants

摘要

Researchers' attitudes towards knowledge transfer are considered to be one important barrier to interaction with the business sector despite institutional and organizational determinants. This study focuses on the empirical analysis of a catch-up region and provides relevant results to enable understanding of the dynamics of emergence of knowledge transfer in less industrialized contexts. The purpose of the analysis lies in the combined study of the influence of determinants from three different levels in the development of interaction with firms at the organizational, institutional and individual levels, which refers to researchers' attitudes towards interaction. The empirical analysis is based on a face-to-face survey designed for this purpose addressed to a representative sample of 765 research team leaders in a peripheral region. The results suggest that team leaders' attitudes are not a significant barrier to interaction with firms compared to other variables related to institutional and organizational levels and highlight implications for policy-makers.