The commercialisation of academic knowledge and academics’ social engagement in Italy

The literature on academic engagement and commercialisation shows that the links between universities, as knowledge producers, and knowledge users, especially but not exclusively firms, are established not only through the commercialisation of academic knowledge but also through a broader range of activities which may be gathered under the term of academic engagement. Academic engagement refers to various ways of knowledge-related collaboration between academics and non-academic organisations. Drawning from data of the Changing Academic Profession survey carried out in the Italian case, the paper explores the state of the academic engagement of Italian academics