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Procedia Economics and Finance 39 (2016) 674 – 678

3rd GLOBAL CONFERENCE on BUSINESS, ECONOMICS, MANAGEMENT and TOURISM,

26-28 November 2015, Rome, Italy

Business model for the university-industry collaboration in open

innovation
Larisa Ivascu a*, Bianca Cirjaliua, Anca Draghicia
a
Politehnica University of Timisoara, Faculty of Management in Production and Transportation, Departament of Management, 14 Remus Str.,
Timisoara, 300191, Romania

Abstract

The present paper proposes a preliminary business model for collaboration between universities and industrial partners (through
projects). Imperatives and dimensions of this model are the analysis result of data obtained by observation applied to public
information and market research. The study was conducted nationwide. This model is the companies’ response to market
demand. This model proposes a general framework for the creation of successful collaboration between universities and
businesses. The industrial partners do not necessarily have all the competencies to perform each operation in-house for the
development of competitive products. Therefore, collaboration with universities helps them in researching the problems that
cannot be solved individually. In this sense, universities could be considered as partners for industries. The analysis undertaken
shows that how the two entities, the university and industry collaborate, very much fits with the framework for collaboration
shown. Although the open innovation model does not apply significantly and primarily in these entities, there is a high potential
for its implementation and the creation of added value.
©
© 2016
2016 The
TheAuthors.
Authors.Published
Publishedby
byElsevier
ElsevierB.V.
B.V.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and Education Center.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of BEMTUR- 2015
Keywords: Open innovation, business model, university- industry collaboration, barrier, key factors.

1. Introduction

In the current competitive environment, companies must achieve a high level of performance, leading to the
production of innovative products, rewarding customer needs and rapidly responding to market demands. In this

* Larisa Ivascu. Tel.: +40-256-404308;

E-mail address: [email protected]

2212-5671 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of BEMTUR- 2015
doi:10.1016/S2212-5671(16)30288-X
 Larisa Ivascu et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 39 (2016) 674 – 678 675

direction of innovation, companies do not have all the needed skills to develop such products inside / in-house.
Therefore, the best way of meeting these requirements is the collaboration between two or more partners. Depending
on the type of activity, many other benefits of collaboration can be entered for each partner, such as: reducing costs,
using a multidisciplinary approach, collaborators reputation, expertise in a particular field et al. (Draghici et al.,
2015). Therefore collaboration between universities and the different actors of the economic environment leads to a
series of benefits that have a favorable impact on business competitiveness. The university-industry collaboration
(UIC) has gained widespread interest because of the high degree of innovation and economic growth ((Mitive, 2009;
Guan and Zaho, 2013; Iqbal et al, 2015a, 2015b).
This paper proposes a business model for collaboration between universities and companies in open innovation in
order to underline the way in which significant results are achieved. It presents an architecture for implementing
open innovation in companies.

2. The theoretical framework of the proposal

Analysis of the research was conducted by three Romanian universities to identify collaboration practices with
industry and partners from the economic environment in open innovation. The universities included in the research
are: Politehnica University of Timisoara, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, and University of Oradea. Following
the research, it was concluded that for the development of a model framework (Draghici et al., 2015) for effective
collaboration between university-industry in open innovation, six key areas are followed:

1. Existence in the university of a well-defined structure that supports in an efficient manner research projects;
2. The presence of an effective project management and especially the communication and monitoring are well
implemented;
3. Involvement of young researchers in identifying the characteristics of the economic environment;
4. Developing new partnerships and supporting existing projects to launch new opportunities.
5. Organizational culture is an important pillar in the openness that universities have toward collaboration with
industry;
6. Dissemination strategy to be strengthened to share research and to use elements of marketing in order to attract
new partners.

These directions reinforce the framework to be created between business, indicating that a standardized
framework model of good practice for effective management of collaborations between academia and industry
would provide concrete guidelines that could be applied to future research projects developed in collaboration.
Comparing organizational cultures in academia and industry has led to the systematization of the common
guidelines presented in Table 1. Following the analysis carried out it was found that interactive behavior of
institutions is largely guided by their organization principles. Analyzing classic academia and industry / industrial
partners it is found that they operate in distinct organizational cultures which differ greatly in their underlying
values, beliefs and processes (Ehrismann et al., 2015). The organizational culture of universities is based on tracking
research directions based on discovery, with the objective to create knowledge, and to educate the workforce. It can
be said that public universities have a mission that contributes to society. In contrast, industry / industrial partners
are at the opposite pole from the perspective of knowledge because knowledge is used to develop products and
services. Knowledge transfer is not made, instead the intellectual property is on focus (Banal-Estanol, 2010; Moraru
et al., 2010).

Table 1. Comparing organizational culture between universities and industry

University Common Industry
Public mission Creating value for society Shareholder value
Publications Reputation Revenue
Project research Research Practical research
Theoretical drivers Science driven Results driven
676 Larisa Ivascu et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 39 (2016) 674 – 678

Shared resouces Competitiveness Private resources

Sharing results Value Retain results
Creating knowledge Sharing knowledge Capturing knowledge
Open source Collaborative innovation Private source
Investigator needs Patient needs Market needs
Education Exchange know-how Retain know-how

3. Strategic framework for successful innovation

Innovation is a complex phenomenon that involves a complex series of processes to be managed towards the
objectives set (Moraru et al., 2010; Othman et al., 2012; Petruzzelli, 2011; Guan et al., 2013). Defining and
identifying strategic directions for successful collaboration between universities and industry and economic partners
contribute to shaping the proposal of the proposed model. The focus is on knowledge transfer between universities
and industry to attract new collaborations.
Transfer of knowledge plays an important role in innovation and growth. Therefore emphasis on culture
contributes to the innovation, but the balanced way to create culture leads to better transfer and exploitation of
knowledge produced by universities in order to stimulate innovation. In (Buckley-Golder et al., 2015) it is defined a
model that includes five stages: Company Opportunity, Co-Recognition (identifying the business needs), Co-
Formulation (focus on meeting the needs and opportunities of the business partner), Co- Creation (partners create
opportunity for innovation processes, products or markets), and Commercialization (main purpose of industrial
partners is the commercialization). These stages are not covered linearly in the knowledge transfer and there are
jumps and returns.
Based on this model and identifying characteristics nationwide, two stages can be added to this model: Co-
Implication: the active involvement of partners in collaboration in order to achieve objectives, and Co-Motivation:
to identify the elements that contribute to value creation in universities and industrial partners / industry.

4. The proposed business model for the collaboration university - industry

The proposal of a preliminary model for the collaboration university - industry is based on analysis of data
obtained through experimentation and observation. It offers a robust set of evaluation metrics, which have a capacity
to assess the strength of collaboration between university and industry. To achieve these objectives we used data
collected in Romania. This business model includes:

x Evaluation of parameters: collaboration, knowledge sharing, culture, financial support, communication, and
barriers. Each parameter includes one important concept to be assessed in order to obtain benefits and tangible
outputs after working between industry and universities.
x Success factors: are associated to each category of parameters, thus suggestive for each category. These factors
contribute to the development of relations in a relationship based on open innovation win to win, so that results
are maximized.
x Tangible outcomes: results obtained from collaboration between universities and industry / industrial partners.
Tangible outputs are the main pillar of the industrial environment, while for universities is the reputation and
image created.
x Barriers: in collaboration between industry and academia there are some barriers that are hampering the
cooperation between the two entities.
 Larisa Ivascu et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 39 (2016) 674 – 678 677

Evaluation Key succes factors

parameters

Number of projects / collaboration

Collaboration Number of research papers
Number of patens

Publications, Participation face to face

meetings and networking activities
Knowledge Mobility and employability availability
sharing Continuing education, Lifelong Learning
Intellectual Property
University

Entrepreneurial culture
Patient needs
Constrains Culture Exchange know-how
Collaborative innovation
Value, Competitiveness

Industry
Scholarship
Financial support Trust, Results
Cost reduction

Exchanging Information
Communication The opportunity of adopting a
multidisciplinary approach

Relevation of parteners
Barriers Contractual negociation,Time management
Technical capabilities of the selected team

Tangible outcomes
Tangible research
Patent and licensing
Commercialisation product
Masters, licenses, and doctoral
thesis; Published research
Social benefits

Fig. 1. Business model for university-industry collaboration in open innovation

678 Larisa Ivascu et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 39 (2016) 674 – 678

5. Conclusions and future research

In conclusion, all partners are encouraged to analyze the current state of the learning partnership and identify
what is potent in partnership and what is not. In other words, in evaluating opportunities it is tried to look into the
"black box of innovation" in development partnership, focusing on innovation process itself. In future research the
implication of government will be studied, on proposed business model for open innovation in the collaboration
university-industry.

Acknowledgements

The research described was financed by the national project: Researches based on Knowledge Management
Approach Concerning Industry–University Collaboration in the Open Innovation Context (UNIinOI). This work was
undertaken through the Partnerships in Priority Domains Programme-PN II, developed with the support of MEN-
UEFISCDI, Project no. 337/2014 in Romania.

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