Out of the Ivory Tower: Characteristics of Institutions Meeting the Research Needs of Industry.

Funding for university research has commonly been bestowed upon only a select few of the 3500 postsecondary institutions in this country . While knowledg produced by universities is used by industry [39], it is not clear if the institutions receiving the bulk of research funding are also the ones that industry looks to for external research. Indeed, few studies to date have examined, on a large scale, firm utilization of university-generated knowledge, and little scholarly attention has been given to research activity in postsecondary institutions other than large research universities. Increased public attention has been directed toward the relationship between th research enterprises of universities and firms. Much of this interest appears t arise out of an enhanced concern over U.S. economic well-being and tightening budgets within academe [25, 36]. The literature reporting on the interactions between sectors has primarily been composed of descriptions of past or current cooperative endeavors [15, 25], cautionary tales [23, 46], or suggestions for change [1, 32]. Most collaboration literature has emphasized what universities have to offer to or gain from industry. This study explores the institutional characteristics that foster collaboration or influence the university-industry relationship when collaboration does occur. Institutional characteristics have been used to investigate various aspects of higher education. For example, characteristics of academic organizations have been analyzed extensively in attempts to predict student outcomes of college  and higher education's effects on earnings [42] and also for college and university planning purposes. To date, little work has been done to analyze the characteristics of the universities that assist firms in scientific research endeavors. Most studies that have examined institutional characteristics of universities that collaborate with private industry have been only descriptive in nature. Fairweather's [14] review of the literature on industrial and academic partnerships suggests that an examination of firm and university attributes may assist in understanding the implementation of alliances and the subsequent use of academic research by private firms. Research has indicated that particular characteristics of universities that may influence relationships between the tw sectors include size, available resources, quality, prestige, institutional type, location, and organization [29, 33, 35, 43]. However, there has been little empirical work reported that tests the validity of these relationships. Institutional Attributes and Research Utilization Resource or size characteristics have been linked with possible research utilization [14, 29]. If an institution has more of the resources considered necessary to support a research enterprise (such as numerous qualified faculty and graduate students, large libraries and well-equipped laboratories, and an abundance of research dollars), the institution could be expected to generate more research. Obviously, research conducted in only a limited number of departments is pertinent to most scientific endeavors in the private sector, an hence, resources attributed to these designated departments are of primary interest [14, p. 43]. A second constraint on resource measures as a predictor of research utilization is quality or prestige of the faculty [14, p. 51; 41]. Even if a department has an abundance of resources, it does not necessarily follow that the faculty are producing research of use to industry. Indeed, if faculty are not highly traine or well qualified, have other nonresearch interests, or have not kept abreast o current developments in their field, they may not have the time or background t produce the research that industry needs or is able to utilize. Variation by type of institution may also be associated with firm utilization o research [14, 33]. In particular, land-grant status, Carnegie classifications, and public/private designations are worthy of consideration. …

Field of study: Education