Title: Empirical analysis of the key factors that can contribute to university-industry cooperational success from a relationship marketing approach

Authors: Veronica Rosendo-Rios; Pervez N. Ghauri; Yingying Zhang

Addresses: Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros (CUNEF), Leonardo Prieto de Castro, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain ' King's College London, 150 Stamford Street, London, SEI 9NH, UK ' Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros (CUNEF), Leonardo Prieto de Castro, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Abstract: This paper focuses on the analysis of university-industry collaborations partnering for research agreements with the aim of fostering the transfer of knowledge and innovation. It analyses the key organisational factors that could contribute to the successful performance of these agreements from a relationship marketing perspective. More precisely, it examines the impact of relevant relationship variables - trust, commitment and integration - on university-industry cooperational success. Moreover, it also analyses the relevance that organisational compatibility and personal experience have as antecedents of these relationships. A structural equation model was proposed and tested. Results support that the key factors for firms to cooperate with universities are mainly the university-industry levels of integration, the level of university commitment towards firms and - to a lesser extent - the level of trust of a firm on the university counterpart. Therefore, this research will inform firm management seeking to develop successful research collaborations with universities.

Keywords: technology transfer; innovation; relationship marketing; university-industry relationships; commitment; trust; integration; satisfaction; critical succes factors; CSFs; university-industry cooperation; industrial collaboration; organisational compatibility; personal experience; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2016.079524

European Journal of International Management, 2016 Vol.10 No.6, pp.647 - 677

Received: 01 Oct 2014
Accepted: 27 May 2015

Published online: 30 Sep 2016 *

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