Research collaborations between science and society require that differing sectoral logics and objectives are reconciled, which creates potential for conflict. Suitable collaboration contracts are an important means to handle such conflicts and therefore crucial for collaboration success. Despite academics’ relevance for these collaborations and their latitude in deciding whether and how to engage with society, their influence on the design of collaboration contracts has been largely neglected. Vitus Püttmann addressed this gap in an empirical study, now published as “Contracts as Safeguards Against Conflicts in Science–Society Research Collaborations: The Influence of Academics’ Engagement Motives and Research Orientation” (Link to the paper on link.springer.com).
The paper investigates how two ways in which academics differ, namely, their motives behind cooperating with society and the orientation of their research toward either more basic or more applied questions, influence the design of contracts for the research collaborations they are involved in. Drawing on transaction cost theory reasoning, hypotheses on the influence of the two factors are developed and subsequently tested empirically using survey data from 2,048 professors in Germany.
In line with the hypotheses, the empirical results show that coordination and control mechanisms are specified more comprehensively in collaboration contracts when professors’ motives and research orientation deepen the line of conflict between partners’ objectives and increase the uncertainties related to a collaboration project. A closer consideration of academics’ influence on the design of contracts for research collaborations thus appears relevant for further research as well as policy and management efforts directed at exchange relations between science and society.
About the journal (from the publisher's webpage):
The Journal of Technology Transfer provides an international forum for research on the economic, managerial and policy implication of technology transfer, entrepreneurship, and innovation. The Journal is especially interested in articles that focus on the relationship between the external environment and organizations (governments, public agencies, firms, universities) and their innovation process.
