Emerging best strategies and capabilities for university–industry cooperation: opportunities for MSMEs and universities to improve collaboration. A literature review 2000–2023

Elizaveta Tereshchenko, Erno Salmela, Elsa Melkko, Swee King Phang and Ari Happonen ()
Additional contact information
Elizaveta Tereshchenko: LUT University
Erno Salmela: LUT University
Elsa Melkko: LAB University of Applied Sciences
Swee King Phang: Taylor’s University
Ari Happonen: LUT University

Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2024, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-45

Abstract: Abstract Continuous technological development, digitalization, Industry 4.0, robotization, virtualization, and related investments in new types of physical assets are imposing increasing financial and intellectual demands on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). While fast technological development and rapid societal change make maintenance of a successful competitive edge ever more challenging, they also offer considerable potential for differentiation. In the area of networking and outside resources, MSMEs can utilize external resources and cooperate and collaborate with higher educational institutions (HEI) to boost their innovations pipeline and develop new technologies and processes to generate commercial products/services and improve their service offering. This research explores existing highly effective university–industry collaboration (UIC) models and seeks explanations for their success by examining the literature from the point of view of establishing successful relationships, emphasizing the importance of critical drivers for success. Our work synthesizes current knowledge of best practices based on a comparative analysis of practical collaboration. In the work, we identify eight popular and successful collaboration models: research and development partnerships, internships and co-op programs, knowledge transfer programs, entrepreneurship, and incubation programs, sponsored projects and grants, joint ventures and licensing agreements, executive education, professional and student career development. Based on analysis of globally reviewed successful models, a concept for robust, productive, and extended collaboration between companies and universities is produced suitable for the Finnish context. Several practical experiences are given for robust collaboration in the current post-COVID transition and energy crisis.

Keywords: Micro and small-sized enterprises; MSE; Micro; Small and medium-sized enterprises; MSME; SME; University; Collaboration; Cooperation; Success model; Industry–university collaboration; Industrial collaboration; Industrial digitalization; Business collaboration; RDI; Innovation; Strategy; Digital transformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13731-024-00386-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:joiaen:v:13:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1186_s13731-024-00386-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://innovation-e ... ip.springeropen.com/

DOI: 10.1186/s13731-024-00386-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().