Title: Assessing the impact and antecedents of university scientific research on firms' innovation commercialisation

Authors: Luca Dezi; Gabriele Santoro; Filippo Monge; Yue Zhao

Addresses: University of Naples 'Parthenope', Via Generale Parisi, 13, 80132 Napoli, Italy ' Department of Management, University of Turin, Corso Unione Sovietica 218/bis, 10134 Torino, Italy ' Department of Economics and Statistics, 'S.Cognetti de Martiis', University of Torino, Lungo Dora Siena, 100 A, 10153 Torino, Italy ' Paris School of Business, 59 Rue Nationale, 75013 Paris, France

Abstract: University-firm links have stimulated a lot of attention. In fact, with the increasing knowledge and technologies created within university laboratories, firms have identified business opportunities by accessing the knowledge developed by external actors and commercialising universities' inventions. In this case, they adopt a knowledge acquisition strategy to foster innovation, reducing risk and exploiting new technological opportunities. This underlines a shift in the role of universities from education providers to scientific knowledge and technologies producers in the current knowledge-driven economy. In this context, the main goal of this paper is to assess the impact of knowledge acquisition on firms' innovation commercialisation, with a specific focus on knowledge developed by university scientific research. By applying hierarchical regressions on a sample of 185 Italian knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs), the findings indicate that firms benefit from research partnerships with and services from universities, when they also seek knowledge from other counterparts and when they possess higher levels of internal absorptive capacity.

Keywords: university-firm collaborations; knowledge acquisition; open innovation; knowledge-intensive firms; KIFs; university scientific research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2018.093937

International Journal of Technology Management, 2018 Vol.78 No.1/2, pp.88 - 106

Received: 21 Apr 2017
Accepted: 26 Nov 2017

Published online: 09 Aug 2018 *

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