The soft side of knowledge transfer partnerships between universities and small to medium enterprises: an exploratory study to understand process improvement

Gareth White, Svetlana Cicmil, Arvind Upadhyay, Nachiappan Subramanian, Vikas Kumar, Ashish Dwivedi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The study explores the soft side of knowledge transfer partnerships between universities and small to medium enterprises (SMEs), a topic which is often neglected in the knowledge management literature. The aim of this paper is to uncover the issues which emerge during formation of a partnership between heterogeneous organizations and universities. In addition, the study unfolds the criticalities of typical process improvement capability that supports the knowledge transfer partnerships between universities and SMEs. Using multiple cases, this study unravels the dominant elements that influence knowledge transfer process development, governance, implications and responsibilities. The major contribution of this study is the development of a framework based on empirical evidence using three knowledge transfer partnerships (KTPs) which illustrates the way in which soft factors in knowledge transfer partnership phases may have an impact on success or failure of university–industry collaborations for innovation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)907-918
Number of pages12
JournalProduction Planning & Control
Volume30
Issue number10-12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jun 2019

Bibliographical note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Production Planning & Control on 30/06/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09537287.2019.1582098

Keywords

  • Knowledge transfer partnership
  • SMEs
  • case study
  • process improvement
  • university

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