The Journal of Technology Transfer - Call for Papers: The impact of university-industry engagement and the rise of competency transfer partnerships
The Journal of Technology Transfer
Special issue – Call for Papers
The impact of university-industry engagement and the rise of competency transfer partnerships
Guest editors:
David Sarpong, Aston University, Birmingham
Dirk Meissner, HSE University, Moscow, Russia Silvio Vismara, University of Bergamo, Italy Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes, State University of Campinas, Brazil
University engagement (effective collaboration), and their impact— the social economic and political influence of research) on regions, nations, and society as a whole, has come to occupy analogous intellectual spaces with concepts such as public value, third mission, and practice lead-research (Carayannis et. al 2018). Strategically positioned within the framework of university-industry relations (Alexandre, et al, 2022), this new approach to engagement and impact featured prominently in the initial decision paper for the 2008 UK research and excellence framework (REF 2028), which sets out the broader contribution of university research and innovation activities to society and the economy (UKRI, 2023).
The new turn has somehow provided a near hysteric questioning space for contestation to emerge in universities where target setting, evaluation, and measures can be fleeting and complex in form. m. What remains unclear is how this new radical policy innovation will impact on existing research and technological development programmes to support its purported aim of prioritizing joined-up thinking for the coproduction of knowledge, value creation and capture, and competitiveness (Schneider et al., 2019). In particular, we know very little about how university collaborative engagements with industry could be structured, governed, and managed in ways that emphasize the application of deep theoretical and practical insights and experiences to dealing with societal challenges and solving intractable problems within the contingencies of rapid disruptions in existing technological trajectories (Reisman and Zhao,1991; Bukhari et al. 2021).
The new call to engagement and impact also breaks with policy style learning and organizational capacities in innovation policies that have gravitated around a complex bi-directional transfer of ideas between universities and industries (Borrás, 2011; Link et al., 2021; Kergroach et al. 2018). In this regard, the notion of engagement and delivery of impact in universities are now very much associated with excellence, training, knowledge transfer, interdisciplinarity, and strategic collaboration between loosely coupled actors made up of divisions, departments, research groups, companies, and communities working together to deliver widespread life-altering results (Watermeyer, 2012).
While others have argued that engagement and impact is an evolutionary process rather than a crucible event (Watermeyer, 2012; Plewa et al., 2013), the emerging paradigm for delivering such engagements and impact is through two distinct pathways. The first is through competency transfer partnerships. Often referred to as an infrastructure dedicated to knowledge organization and transfer, competence transfer centers as innovation hubs serve as reference points for expertise and services in technology transfer and work to deepen and share competencies, expertise, and knowledge on technology (Boucher, et al., 2003). A new form of academic knowledge and technology transfer, often dedicated to specific sectors, e.g., artificial intelligence, and agriculture, these transfer partnerships bring universities and companies together in a professional network with the aim of generating new knowledge, combining potentials to provide expert services and information on new and emerging technologies and innovations. They are also known for facilitating stakeholder dialogues and maintaining contact databases to support and promote the development of their focus sectors. Second is the hubs and spokes model of orchestrating an integrated innovation ecosystem aimed at regeneration and growth-leveraging place and space (Mayer, 2013). These Management Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (mKTP) are said to be organized by design but not default and facilitate the translation of science, technology, and enterprise in learning spaces often labeled as business hubs, enterprise hubs, or DiY hubs (Rossie et al., 2017). The cost of collaboration in these partnerships as a result of their governance structures had also come under scrutiny (Vivona, 2023), and continues to shape debates on governance mode choices in technology transfer processes (Schoen et al., 2014).
To this end, this special issue aims to extend our understanding of the opportunities, potentialities, and limits of the new turn to university-industry engagement and impact, how they are managed and their implications for on regions, nations, and society as a whole. Therefore, we invite rigorous contributions, including conceptual and theoretical papers, state-of-the-art reviews, empirical research (quantitative and qualitative), and case studies from academics and policy experts to advance research on University-industry engagement from multidisciplinary perspectives. Some indicative themes of relevance to this special issue include, but are not limited to the following:
Potential topics and questions
1. How do universities and their faculties make meaning of engagement and impact?
2. Exploring university-industry engagement and competency transfer partnerships as an organizing strategy, and how it connects across the sub-disciplines, academic tribes, and territories.
3. How do universities-industry engagement and impact initiatives differ from the traditional research and technological development policy programmes that have struggled to provide widespread life-altering results?
4. Should university-industry engagement and impact activities be approached as an evolutionary process or a crucible event for tackling societal challenges?
5. How can the university inspire competency centers to mobilize collective action toward tackling societal challenges and respond to the call for engagement and impact?
6. How can we effectively evaluate the transaction cost associated with new University-industry engagement and competency transfer partnerships?
7. What organizing practices facilitate (or impede) new University-industry engagement and impact?
Please note that these topics are by no means an exhaustive set of questions, and we invite submissions that cover other issues and topics that fall within the aims and scope of this special issue. Cross-disciplinary contributions and those from multiple perspectives are particularly welcome. While case study exemplars are suitable for this call, it is important that appropriate discussion of the novelty, generalizability, and implications of the exemplar are considered.
SPECIAL ISSUE EVENTS
We will be hosting some Pre-submissions Online workshops for individuals interested in submitting to the Special Issue in 2024. The guest editors will discuss the objectives, scope, and aim of the Special Issue Potential contributors to the SI will have the opportunity to field questions. Those interested in attending these workshops are expected to also prepare a two-slide PowerPoint presentation that summarises the paper they plan to submit to the SI.
Guest editors are aiming at establishing special tracks at EURAM 2024 and RnD Management 2024 conferences. Presenters at these conferences will be invited to submit their papers to the Special Issue.
Post-submission: It is anticipated that the guest editors will organize a special issue in-person revision workshop (date and location TBA) for authors who have received an initial R&R decision on their manuscript. Please note that participation in the workshop does not guarantee acceptance of the paper. Participation in this workshop is also not a prerequisite for publication.
SUBMISSION PROCESS AND TIMELINE
• Extended abstracts submission: 30 June 2024
• Full paper submission: 30 October 2024
• Expected Publication: Early 2025
• Submissions should be prepared using the Journal of Technology Transfer Manuscript Preparation Guidelines (https://www.springer.com/journal/10961/submission-guidelines (this opens in a new tab))
• Manuscripts should be submitted directly to the guest editors
• Articles will be reviewed according to the JoTT double-blind review process. • We welcome informal inquiries relating to the Special Issue, proposed topics, and potential fit with the Special Issue objectives. Please direct any questions on the Special Issue to the guest editors
David Sarpong, Aston University, Birmingham, UK: d.sarpong1@asron.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)
Dirk Meissner, HSE University, Moscow, Russia: d.meissner@hse.ru (this opens in a new tab)
Silvio Vismara, University of Bergamo, Italy: silvio.vismara@unibg.it (this opens in a new tab) Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes, State University of Campinas, Brazil: salati@unicamp.br (this opens in a new tab)
Guest editors are committed to the high editorial standards of the journal which was awarded ‘Editorial Excellence recognition’ by SpringerNature
References
Alexandre, F., Costa, H., Faria, A. P., & Portela, M. (2022). Enhancing University–Industry collaboration: the role of intermediary organizations. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 47(5), 1584-1611.
Biegelbauer, P. (2007). Learning from abroad: the Austrian competence centre programme Kplus. Science and Public Policy, 34(9), 606-618.
Borrás, S. (2011). Policy learning and organizational capacities in innovation policies. Science and Public Policy, 38(9), 725-734.
Bukhari, E., Dabic, M., Shifrer, D., Daim, T., & Meissner, D. (2021). Entrepreneurial university: The relationship between smart specialization innovation strategies and university-region collaboration. Technology in Society, 65, 101560.
Carayannis, E. G., Grigoroudis, E., Campbell, D. F., Meissner, D., & Stamati, D. (2018). The ecosystem as helix: an exploratory theory-building study of regional co-opetitive entrepreneurial ecosystems as quadruple/quintuple helix innovation models. R&d Management, 48(1), 148-162.
Iles, P. (1992). Centres of excellence? Assessment and development centres, managerial competence, and human resource strategies. British Journal of Management, 3(2), 79-90.
Link, A.N., van Hasselt, M., & Vismara, S. (2021). Going public with public money. Small Business Economics. 57(3), 1419–1426.
Kergroach, S., Meissner, D., & Vonortas, N. S. (2018). Technology transfer and commercialisation by universities and PRIs: benchmarking OECD country policy approaches. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 27(5-6), 510-530.
Mayer, H. (2013). Entrepreneurship in a hub-and-spoke industrial district: Firm survey evidence from Seattle's technology industry. Regional Studies, 47(10), 1715-1733.
Plewa, C., Korff, N., Baaken, T., & Macpherson, G. (2013). University–industry linkage evolution: An empirical investigation of relational success factors. R&D Management, 43(4), 365-380. Reisman, A., & Zhao, L. (1991). A taxonomy of technology transfer transaction types. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 16(2), 38-42.
Rossi, F., Ainurul R., and Nick Y. (2017) Academic engagement as knowledge co-production and implications for impact: Evidence from Knowledge Transfer Partnerships." Journal of Business Research 80 : 1-9.
Schneider, F., Giger, M., Harari, N., Moser, S., Oberlack, C., Providoli, I., ... & Zimmermann, A. (2019). Transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge and sustainability transformations: Three generic mechanisms of impact generation. Environmental Science & Policy, 102, 26-35.
Schoen, A., van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, B., & Henkel, J. (2014). Governance typology of universities’ technology transfer processes. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 39, 435-453
UKRI Early decisions made for REF 2028 (2023), available at: https://www.ukri.org/news/early-decisions-made-for-ref-2028/
Vivona, R., Demircioglu, M.A., & Audretsch, D.B. (2023). The costs of collaborative innovation. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 48(3), 873-899.
Watermeyer, R. (2012). From engagement to impact? Articulating the public value of academic research. Tertiary Education and Management, 18, 115-130.