How Does University Collaboration Contribute to Successful R&D Management? : An examination of the Swedish setting

The issue of through what processes R&D collaboration with universities affects a firms’innovation performance remains under-researched. In particular, university relationships have notbeen fully integrated in the open innovation framework. This study explores the relationshipbetween firms’ collaboration with universities and their capabilities for innovation, as perceivedby R&D managers. Drawing on a series of interviews with R&D managers at 45 randomlyselected firms collaborating with two research universities in Sweden, we explicitly recognisemechanisms through which university relationships contribute to successful R&D management.Qc 2012020