International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development - Volume 13, Issue 3, 2014

A resource-based view of organizations suggests that internal knowledge is amongst the most important sources of competitive advantage (Hendry and Pettigrew 1990; Leonard-Barton 1995). Regardless of whether these ideas are exaggerated, it is not necessary to buy into them all to accept the significance of knowledge as a resource. Nevertheless, the fact remains that knowledge is complex, multi-faceted, intangible, often tacit and specialised (Davenport and Prusak; Ahmed et al. 2002). Consequently, it is difficult to manage exchange. This has implications for narrowing the gap between academic research and policy impact and developing policy-relevant academic research and to improve a flow of information between academics and policy-makers. One way of improving the exchange and flow of knowledge is to use knowledge brokers (KBs), who bridge the gap between creators and users of knowledge (Lavis 2006). The function of a KB may vary according to context. In the case of specialised knowledge, Stuiver, et al (2013) have gone as far as to suggest that KBs are part of a creative process, where knowledge-broking may be a way of codifying, translating and, finally, sharing, difficult to disseminate knowledge. This idea has been expanded upon in the literature with KBs engaged in the process of the creation of new knowledge (Oldham and McLean 1997; Stuiver et al. 2013). This paper builds upon a study examining how the Work and Employment Relations Survey (WERS) data informs government policy, in order to establish the significant role which KBs play in bridging the gap between research, knowledge and policy-making. Our findings indicate that WERS is widely used and feeds into a wide range of non-academic policy outputs through the involvement of particular agents, who play the role of KBs at various points in the dissemination and use of WERS data.

The objective of this research paper is to assess the impact of intellectual property (IP) ownership regimes (professor’s privilege vs institutional ownership) on the knowledge transfer and academia–industry collaboration. One of the aims is also to define the advantages and challenges of both ownership regimes and different reward policies. The article analyses IP management systems at Uppsala University and the University of Tartu. Management of IP rights is not a thing in itself and its functioning and effectiveness cannot be evaluated without understanding its objectives. The basic idea behind the establishment of IP management systems in academia is to support academia–industry collaboration, which should result in increased welfare in a country and region.

Absorptive capacity (ACAP) is a consideration of how able the firm is to recognise the value of, acquire, internalise, and exploit external new knowledge. We propose a new approach to measuring ACAP drawing from cognitive psychology models of learning theory and test this against a sample of advanced engineering SME’s in the south-west of the United Kingdom.

This article examines the emerging national innovation system (NIS) in Lithuania and identifies the major reasons hindering a successful cooperation between universities and business companies within the emerging NIS. The study highlights the peculiarities of Lithuanian phenomenon: ‘The most educated and least innovative in terms with the economic effect of innovation’.

The common vision on business incubators considers them as an important part of the regional innovation infrastructure, with a special mission of innovation-based start-ups support and eco-systems creation. It seems beyond question that business incubators are also important elements of the universities’ system of technology transfer. University researchers and students create spin-off companies to commercialize valuable R&D results, while universities are interested in profits and knowledge sharing and, thus, nurture these spin-off companies via business incubators. Despite the prevalence of this vision, the problem of business incubators effectiveness assessment is not solved in a systematic way. One of the reasons is the diversity of models and institutional contexts in which business incubators act. In this article the system of performance indicators for universities, establishing business incubators, has been proposed. To develop this system, a questionnaire survey was conducted. A real options-driven approach is used for criteria selection.