Thornley, Clare and McLoughlin, Shane and Shankar, Kalpana (2019) Knowledge Management in Academic Industry Collaborations: how to best foster Innovation Capability? Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Knowledge Management, 2. pp. 1016-1022. ISSN 978-1-911218-94-4

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Abstract

Purpose Academic industry collaborations (AIC) are increasingly seen as a key part of national innovation policies as an approach to creating and exploiting knowledge. They, however, present a complex challenge in terms of knowledge management (KM). This is partly due to the wide range of stakeholders, the input of government policy, and also the different cultures, practices and expectations of those involved. The research questions are as follows: RQ1: How do participants perceive and experience knowledge creation and transfer in academic industry collaborations? RQ2: How can the intersection between knowledge management literature and AIC inform and improve both disciplines and practices? Methods (1) An analysis of KM literature in terms of AIC. (2) Exploratory in-depth interviews with participant stakeholders of AIC projects. (3) Findings are then analysed in terms of existing concepts in KM literature. Findings Initial findings suggest that a more in-depth acknowledgement of the role of power, tensions and differences between stakeholders is important in understanding and improving the innovation potential of AIC projects. A more nuanced understanding of knowledge transfer is also needed with tailored approaches for particular project stages and organisations. Practical Implications The role of academic industry collaborations in fostering innovation by facilitating knowledge creation and transfer is seen as increasingly important as a social and political priority but KM has so far not yet engaged fully with this. This paper suggests that extending KM from a primarily organisation level focus to a broader societal focus would be a useful development.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	innovation; knowledge transfer; academic industry collaboration; science policy; knowledge management;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Innovation Value Institute, IVI
Item ID:	11046
Depositing User:	IVI Editor
Date Deposited:	16 Sep 2019 15:57
Journal or Publication Title:	Proceedings of the 19th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Publisher:	Academic Bookshop
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Organisation
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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