Detail Information

BACK

Category Others
Title Determinants of contract renewals in university–industry contract research: Going my way, or good Sam?
Institution Tohru Yoshioka-Kobayashi and Makiko Takahashi, Springer
Date 2021/09/01
Abstract Long-term university–industry contract research benefits both universities and the industry, as it can potentially reduce transaction costs and improve the quality of such collaborations. Nevertheless, trade-offs between the advantages and disadvantages of long-term contracts motivate firms to enter stage-gate contracts (i.e., a shorter contract period with an expectation of renewal or extension) to avoid uncertainty over collaboration’s performance. This study addresses two less understood questions in the contract renewal or extension decision: longitudinal changes in the strength of the commitment to the collaboration and the determinants of renewals. We empirically test these issues with 1,562 research contracts from a leading Japanese university, and we match this database to a questionnaire survey results obtained from its industrial counterparts. Our empirical test identified an inverse-U-shaped effect on the degree of commitment in the time elapsed since the first research contract. We also found that firms are more likely to renew or extend a contract when they perceive technological knowledge learning or co-publish an academic paper. Our findings suggest that university–industry contract research focused on academic research-related activities (or academic researcher’s “going my way”) is likely to establish long-term collaborations.
Notes Supplemental material
URL
Label 技術経営
Register date 2021/02/26

PDF DOWNLOAD

BACK