Initial situation/policy problem
Innovations drive structural change, generate jobs, and ensure that regions can emerge stronger from crises. SMEs, in particular, regard inventions developed within the framework of cooperations with universities as a promising source of innovation. Thus, over half of SMEs cooperate with universities as part of their R&D activities (cf. Brink et al., 2024). Higher education policies also recognise the transfer of knowledge into the business economy as an increasingly important task. However, despite a nearly ubiquitous support infrastructure at universities, the potential of knowledge transfer from academic research to the business economy is far from being fully realised. This is especially true for protected inventions, whose joint commercialisation is associated with higher administrative and financial barriers (cf. Bijedic et al., 2016 and 2021).
Research goals/approach
The aim of this project is to clarify under which conditions SMEs succeed in utilising the results of academic research and which factors may hinder this process. Thereby, the focus will also be on patent collaborations, which typically involve high levels of innovation. These questions will be addressed through in-depth interviews with highly innovation-active university departments, technology transfer offices, and their SME collaboration partners. Patent cooperation pairs will be identified using the patent database of the IW Cologne.