Capability, appropriability and performance in the context of emerging university-industry collaborations

Abstract

This thesis aims to advance the knowledge of the impact of capabilities on performance in the context of emerging university-industry collaborations (UIC), and the roles of a firm’s appropriability, as an antecedent of an engagement with universities, by addressing three key issues. First, the knowledge body on the relationship between capabilities and performance is fragmented due to ambiguous measures, diverse contexts, and the complex nature of the UIC. Second, empirical studies are biased towards the impact of a firm’s technological capabilities on its performance; so, little is known about the effects of a firm’s non-technological capabilities. Third, the findings regarding how a firm’s appropriability influences its decision to cooperate with universities are contradictory, thus preventing their generalisation. The need to address these issues is further strengthened by the evidence from countries where the UIC is emerging and immature – i.e., a minimal effect of a firm’s technological capabilities on its performance when engaged with universities, and a lack of research on the relationship between a firm’s appropriability and its cooperation with universities. To address the gaps in the literature, three studies are conducted. The first study explores ambiguities and complexities in the debate on the relationship between the capabilities of firms and universities on their performance in the UIC context by employing a systematic literature review. Based on 49 peer-reviewed articles, the findings reveal that UIC scholars focus on a broad spectrum of capabilities and performance measures. The firms’ technological and non-technological capabilities as well as the universities’ research and non-research capabilities are found as critical to enhancing their UIC performance. The impact of the capabilities is also contingent on several factors and contextual settings. The firm’s absorptive capacity is a prerequisite to absorb and exploit the university’s knowledge successfully. Several issues also emerge from the review such as the firm’s R&D intensity as its technological capability, perplexing use of absorptive capacity, and lack of studies on the desorptive capacity. On the basis of synthesis insights, a framework that underpins the key components in the literature is established. The second study empirically investigates the effects of the firms’ innovation capabilities (ICs) on their innovation performance when engaged in various UIC channels. The findings reveal that the effects of ICs on innovation performance are contingent on the UIC channels employed by firms. Particularly, organisational IC is critical when engaged in collaborative research or in the use of the university’s research facilities whereas marketing IC is beneficial when adopting consulting and contract research. This paper opens a black box thanks to the ambiguous findings from the literature on emerging UIC by shedding the light on the situation that given the firms’ weak technological IC, they can benefit from non- technological ICs in improving their innovation performance when engaged with the university partners. The third study explores the relationship between a firm’s appropriability and its openness in the UIC context. The analysis reveals that the firm’s appropriability exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with an engagement with a university. Furthermore, being a product innovator strengthens an inverted U-shaped relationship between the firm’s appropriability and its UIC breadth while being a process innovator weakens the relationship and exhibits a U-shaped curve to that relationship. Although excessive appropriability discourages the product innovator from cooperating with the universities through relational governance, the process innovator tends to shift its interest from relational governance to contractual governance. This thesis finally offers contributions to theory, policy, and management, and suggests avenues for future research.

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ORCID for Vadim Grinevich: orcid.org/0000-0002-3207-3680

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