The influence of researcher competence on university-industry collaboration: The mediating role of domain knowledge transfers and spillovers

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to discover the influence of researcher competence on University-Industry collaboration via researcher’s domain knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

Quantitative data were collected via survey questionnaire by using purposive sampling technique from a total of 121 academicians from all five research universities in Malaysia. PLS-SEM is used to examine multiple structural relationships between the researcher competence, domain knowledge transfers and spillovers and university-industry collaboration.

Findings

Researcher’s competence serves as a success booster to initiate the collaborative endeavour, and the University-Industry collaboration is found to be substantially influenced by the domain knowledge transfers and spillovers.

Research limitations/implications

The size of the sample in this study was however constrained by the characteristics and background of the targeted pool of respondents to be generalised to the population of all universities in Malaysia.

Practical implications

Researcher competence is found to be significant drive to the University-Industry collaboration formation through the development and deployment of domain knowledge transfers and spillovers. Thus, it requires the desire and need for continuous competence development for researchers, and a step change is called for individual principal investigators about extending their leadership across the field of studies and appearing as critical business partners in the University-Industry collaboration.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature by empirically investigating the influence of researcher competence on the University-Industry collaboration via researcher’s domain knowledge. It attempts to show the researcher’s ability to leverage their competencies in increasing the collaborative endeavour in making out business opportunities, which will eventually influence the public university’s sustainability development. In addition, it proves the importance of researcher’s competence and domain knowledge within the entrepreneurial activities, which serves as the significant drivers to ensure successful University-Industry collaboration.

Citation

Ting, S.H., Yahya, S. and Tan, C.L. (2019), "The influence of researcher competence on university-industry collaboration: The mediating role of domain knowledge transfers and spillovers", Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 277-303. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-06-2018-0054