University-industry relationships the core topics

There is a huge and still growing literature focusing on university-industry relationships. The objective of this section is to show how our contribution relates to this literature. We do not pretend that our scheme is exhaustive, but we think that an appropriate way to present the different approaches is to focus on the three elements that characterise university-industry relationships. The first element concerns firms. Several studies have looked at the economic impact of scientific research on the private sector the importance of the university as an external source of information used by firms to innovate and the characteristics of firms that benefit from academic research. The second approach is to study the channels used by both actors - university and industry -to exchange information, and the conditions favouring or blocking these interactions. The third approach focuses on universities and analyses the influence of these alliances on their evolution. 

In this connection, Feldman (1999), Salter and Martin (2001) and Breschi and Lissoni (2001) are valuable surveys. 

Arundel and Geuna (2004) claim that localisation matters at country level due to cultural and linguistic specificities in the EU countries. 

Several studies (Cohen et al. 2002, Fontana, Geima and Matt 2004, the Community Itmovation Surveys (CIS) I, II and III) examine a broad range of information sources used by firms to iimovate, of which one is the research and development (R D) conducted in Public Research Organisations (PROs). Some distinguish between the sources of information that contribute to innovative ideas and to the completion of iimovation. Overall, PROs are not considered to be a major source of information for the iimovative process of firms. They do not play a central role in suggesting new ideas. They seem to be more important for innovation completion than for new ideas, but, in both phases, public research is less important than contributions from the vertical chain of production (suppliers, buyers, the firm itself). 

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