Industry-Science Collaboration for Radical Innovation : The Discovery of Phase-Dependent Collaborative Configurations

This study deals with the organization of industry-science collaboration in the case of knowledge transfer for radical innovation. Based on a contingency notion, the relation between research and development (R&D) projects’ properties and the way of collaboration is explored. By means of in-depth interviews with industrial managers 32 projects were studied. We found two configurations: consortium-deluxe and research services-plus. Time-to-market was found to be the discriminating factor. The first configuration represents a large-scale consortium in which a firm over time informally adjusts the activities of some academic partners towards the objectives of its own project. In the research services-plus configuration, firms are looking for specific knowledge to complete their own, highly confidential projects. Because of internal deadlines, delay is undesired and the level of control is high. Contrary to ‘classic’ research services, mobility plays an important role in services-plus. These configurations help to reach more effective knowledge transfer