The organization of industry-science collaboration in the Dutch chemical industry : an exploratory study on the organizational arrangements applied for knowledge transfer in industrial RD-projects

摘要

Nowadays, industry-science collaboration is a hot topic. A main reason is that both universities and public research institutes are considered to be able to act as an external source of new skills and knowledge that firms can use as input in their innovation processes. There are many possibilities (e.g. consortia, contract R&D, research joint venture) to organize this interaction. This variety of arrangements is convenient, since the R&D-projects running within firms are not similar as well. In addition, the type of knowledge available in and required by chemical firms differs. In this PhD-project, it was studied if a relation could be found between the type of R&D-project, the nature of the knowledge involved, and the way collaboration with a scientific institute was organized. The results of the study – based on 36 in-depth interviews with project managers in the Dutch chemical industry – showed that such a relation exists. Four types of R&D-objectives (technological gatekeeping; platform creation; business research; technical support) were discerned, while for the knowledge available in (i.e. base) and required by (i.e. flow) the firm a number of profiles were found. Each unique combination of a type of R&D-objective and the nature of the knowledge involved led to a specific way of collaboration, that is, regarding the organizational arrangement chosen and coordination procedures (e.g. communication frequency, monitoring) used. In addition, it turned out that in order to assess the collaborative process in a realistic way – and thus overcome disappointment in the end – all elements of the encountered configuration should be taken into account.