Dynamics of university-industry knowledge co-creation: Coping with economic swings and academic managerialism
- Autores: Ana María Gómez Aguayo
- Directores de la Tesis: Joaquín María Azagra Caro (dir. tes.), Arturo Vicente Estruch Guitart (tut. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de València ( España ) en 2024
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Liana Marina Ranga (presid.), Adela García Aracil (secret.), Oscar Llopis (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Economía Agroalimentaria por la Universitat Politècnica de València
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: RiuNet
- Resumen
Knowledge creation is not only the core of economic growth, but also the basis of social welfare. Knowledge co-creation nowadays relies on extensive collaboration across diverse sectors of society, with a predominant emphasis on collaborative endeavours between universities and industries. Investigating the dynamics of knowledge co-creation and its impact is essential, particularly within a context where corporations are progressively becoming pivotal players in the innovation landscape and its involvement raises doubts regarding business scientific impact and its quality. This level of involvement in R&D present several benefits, but also raises doubts regarding the scientific impact and quality of business-driven research.
The primary objective of this doctoral thesis is to address three sets of research questions. First, to investigate the influence economic growth on firms' scientific knowledge co-creation outputs and its scientific impact. Second, to examine the role of different types of knowledge transfer channels in the relationship of economic growth and scientific impact. The role of formal channels, informal channels, and cocreative channels in particular, is tested. Third, to explore the rise of team-centred motivations to collaborate with industry of co-creators in the context of university management practices, and assessment culture (what we denominate as managerialism of academia).
The context of the study is Spanish co-creation of knowledge. Over the period of study from 2000 to 2016, several institutional and socio-economic conditions have changed the dynamics of co-creation between universities and industry. The empirical analysis relies on three main data sources. First, qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with university and industry researchers. Second, a dataset of publications from 15,500 Spanish firms spanning 2000 to 2016. Third, a survey conducted to the 3,338 corresponding authors of these publications.
In general, this thesis fulfils its objective of exploring how aspects of university-industry co-creation and its impact on business science respond to changes in institutional and socio-economic conditions. First, this thesis provides empirical evidence to confirm a university-industry cycle theory, positing that economic growth maintains a curvilinear relationship with firms' co-creation of scientific knowledge with universities and its scientific impact. Second, it shows a negative effect of informal channels on the scientific impact of collaborative science, and a positive moderating effect of informal and cocreative channels on the relationship between economic growth and scientific impact. Third, it illustrates the impact of academic managerialism on the evolution of self-centred towards team-centred motivations to collaborate with industry among university co-creators.
These findings suggest that knowledge creation and the scientific impact of Spanish firms are vulnerable to economic fluctuations, resulting in an unstable capacity to co-create high-quality scientific knowledge. On the other hand, this thesis highlights the importance of the role of government-driven collaboration programmes in advancing business science. By confirming a positive effect of co-creative channels, it shows that informal channels and joint projects financed by public funds support collaborative science and boost the effects of economic growth on scientific impact. Finally, when exploring the motivations within the context of academic managerialism, the thesis reflects on the risks of excessive control and performativity in certain working conditions within universities, which influence academics' motivations to collaborate with industries.
The conclusions of this thesis offer valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners aiming to optimize strategies for promoting innovation and scientific impact of collaborative research.
