Graduate hiring as a human capital outcome of university-industry innovation collaboration

Gerwin Evers and Christian Østergaard

Industry and Innovation, 2026, vol. 33, issue 2, 209-233

Abstract: Firms can strengthen their competitive position in the knowledge-based economy by collaborating with universities on innovation. Beyond generating knowledge, such collaborations can also offer a strategic approach for firms to access and recruit highly skilled talent, particularly university graduates. This study explores the impact of university-industry innovation collaborations on firms’ hiring of university graduates. Using genetic matching – a robust, algorithm-driven matching method that optimises covariate balance – on data from the Danish Community Innovation Survey and longitudinal firm-level employment microdata, the study constructs a counterfactual to assess how university collaborations influence the hiring of high-skilled labour. The results show that firms involved in university-industry collaborations increase their recruitment of graduates, particularly those from their university partners and among PhD graduates. These findings highlight that collaborating with a university not only supports knowledge transfer but also reshapes firms’ workforce composition, supports building absorptive capacity and fostering long-term innovation capabilities.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2025.2482040

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