Collaborative Culture and Perceived Issues with University-to-Industry Knowledge Transfer

The generation, application, and exploitation of knowledge are becoming critical to how companies, countries, and economies develop and sustain competitive advantage. Some firms are better able to utilize externally generated technologies and scientific knowledge, such as knowledge transferred from universities. This paper examines the following questions: 1) does a collaborative culture better enable a firm to be connected both internally and externally? 2) What potential issues and barriers exist for technology transfer as perceived by managers in the firm? We attempt to identify key sources of literature relative to firm characteristics, expand the concept of connectedness to include the importance of a collaborative culture to better enable a firm to be connected both internally and externally, and identify potential issues and barriers for technology transfer as perceived by the firm. We present findings from a survey and interviews with R&D managers from the pharmaceutical division within a large corporation (confidential name) broadly based in healthcare and the life sciences