Long-term collaboration between university and industry: A case study of nanotechnology development in Japan

Much has been studied about university–industry collaboration, with the past studies almost exclusively focused on the explicit outputs out of university, such as patents, publications, licensing, and spin-offs. This article examines the little researched aspect of less explicit and more informal collaboration through two cases of nanotechnology development in Japan. The cases reveal that university and industry collaborate at a deep level, integrates various disciplines of knowledge, and university functions as a hub to develop networks of researchers, and to train corporate researchers to acquire the epistemological thinking process, much more than to transfer technologies. These findings sharply contrast with the conventional theoretical understanding of university–industry collaboration based on the linear model of development. It also provides policy implications to promote more substantial collaboration between university and industry beyond explicit intellectual property outputs.