TRIPLE HELIX noms.pmd

O-035The role of universities in the creation and development of firm specificinnovative capabilities within the tripe helix model of innovationWill Geoghegan, Paul Ryan, NUI Galway, IrelandThe Irish Government has committed to a significant programme of investment and support for university/industry collaboration.The aim of these programmes is to build the innovative capacity of collaborating firms. Contentiously, some (Jordan andO'Leary, 2007) believe this expenditure has represents a negative effect on product and process innovation in collaboratingfirms, more researchers (Freeman, 1991, Hagedoorn, 1993, Powell et al., 1996b) however believe the opposite to be the case.This paper does not solely engage in the debate as to whether increased university collaboration leads to increased newproduct and process innovation but investigates how a firm’s innovative capability is created and developed through universitycollaboration. The paper theoretically contributes by bridging the previously unexplored nexus between university/industrycollaboration (within the triple helix model of innovation) and innovative capabilities. It also empirically reports on several importantissues for industrial firms, policy makers and university managers, by applying an innovative capabilities framework to university/industry collaboration.The paper builds upon macro innovation systems literature to develop specific contextual factors that have influenced Irishuniversities over the past number of years. The triple helix model of innovation (which views the innovation system as theinterplay and interaction between three main domains or actors of Government, university and industry) will be employed as thelens upon which to concentrate the research due to the centrality afforded to the role of the university. With this foundation onecan clearly answer the micro firm specific question related to the development and emergence of innovation capabilities throughuniversity/industry collaboration.Little empirical research has been undertaken to highlight how industrial partners may develop and create the capacity forinnovative potential as a result of collaborative partnerships with universities. Thus, a gap in the literature exists that linksuniversity/industry collaboration and the innovative capabilities that may be created and developed through such ventures.Romijn and Albaladejo emphasise this gap (2002) “despite several innovation surveys… there is still little empirical evidenceabout how companies improve their innovation capacity.”Many Irish policy makers have also highlighted the need for closer ties between universities and industry. There have beennumerous Irish Government policy documents promoting the need for increased university/industry interaction, for example TheNational Development Plan (1999), Ahead of the Curve: Ireland's Place in the Global Economy (ESG, 2004), Building Ireland'sKnowledge Economy - the Irish Action Plan for Promoting Investment in R&D to 2010 (Forfás, 2004) and Promoting Enterprise–Higher Education Relationships (Forfás, 2007). The then Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin outlined that:“Closer interaction between public knowledge institutions and enterprise is widely recognised as being increasingly important,as global competition forces companies to innovate more and strengthen core areas. Collaboration with knowledge institutionsenables companies to gain access to new knowledge, specialist skills and the latest technologies. Higher education should,therefore, be underpinned by a coherent policy approach that includes the public and private sector” (Forfás, 2007).The primary focus of this paper is at firm level and in particular that of the individual enterprise in collaboration with a university.As a secondary focus, it also explores various macro level environments that help give the research an increased contextualunderstanding. The main research vehicle for this paper is the Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSETs).These multimillion research projects span six of the seven Irish universities and all nine CSETs have a considerable industrypresence. These world-class centres for research are all based in Irish universities and have significant ties with industrialpartners.The specific research question that this paper investigates is: How universities can create and develop innovative capabilities?The main research subthemes are the seven elements of the innovative capabilities framework which comprise: ExternalEnvironment and Networking Intensity; Path Dependency, Prior Related Knowledge & Learning; Resource Endowment andAbility to Reconfigure Resources; Culture, Structure, Climate & Trust; Creativity, Idea Management & Opportunity Recognition;Human Resources; and ultimately Company Vision and Strategy. These seven elements were then qualitatively tested in theCentres for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSETs). It was found that three of the elements (External Environment andNetworking Intensity; Path Dependency, Prior Related Knowledge & Learning; and Idea Management & Opportunity Recognition)allowed the university greatly influence the collaborating firms innovative capabilities.Madrid, October 20, 21 & 22 - 2010112