Implementing university-industry joint product innovation projects

Abstract

This article provides a grounded process description of product innovation projects that are initiated by industrial firms and implemented jointly with not-for-profit technology institutions such as technological universities and government research laboratories. This process description is limited to those joint product development projects between collaborators with complementary expertise, which are of strategic importance to both collaborators and involve the joint creation of new technology or significant improvement over present technology. The process description contributes significantly to the literature on collaborative product development by depicting in detail the essential linkage of antecedent conditions and motivations for the joint project initiation, to the actual project implementation process in which the two collaborators contribute complementary resources, and further to the project's expected consequences. It also shows how knowledge is created and transferred in projects of this type. The general process description has been developed by synthesizing in-depth case studies of such university-industry joint product innovation projects, and aids understanding of effective processes for their initiation and implementation.