Enhancing university – firm collaboration through an open innovation platform - A study on university – small firm collaboration based on experiences from the Plan C project

摘要

In this paper two research questions are explored by analysing empirical material from Savonia University of Applied Sciences’ innovation platform. The primary question is: how does strong tie development between faculty and firm representatives differ in the context of applied science university from strong tie development in the context of research university? A secondary and more practical question concerns the extent to which an innovation platform was successful in bringing Savonia University of Applied Sciences closer to theoretically derived Open Innovation System (OIS) operation model. Concerning the first research question our analysis suggests that strong-tie development in the context of university of applied science is different from that of research university because of missing common history between firm population and university staff. Concerning the second question our analysis suggests that the creation of an open innovation platform (Plan C) has helped Savonia University of Applied Sciences to increase the number of ties between university staff and firm representatives as well as the tie strength. By so doing the project has supported the theoretically driven Open Innovation System operation mode.