Determinants and Intensity of Science-Business Collaboration

Abstract

This article examines the determinants and intensity of science-business collaboration from the perspective of enterprises in Poland. The study addresses a gap in the literature by distinguishing between two analytically different dimensions of cooperation with scientific institutions: the probability that a company engages in collaboration and the intensity of collaboration measured by the number of cooperation forms used by the company. The empirical analysis is based on survey data from 433 enterprises, of which 104 declared at least one form of cooperation with universities or research institutions. The study combines descriptive analysis with two regression approaches. First, a binary logistic regression model is used to identify the factors associated with the occurrence of collaboration. Second, a Poisson regression model is applied to explain variation in the number of collaboration forms declared by companies. The results show that science-business collaboration is strongly differentiated by company characteristics. Medium-sized and large enterprises are significantly more likely to collaborate than small companies, and they also engage in a broader range of cooperation forms. Innovation activity also plays a central role: both product and process innovation increase the likelihood of collaboration, while process innovation in particular is associated with higher collaboration intensity. Among the institutional variables, the perceived competence of university staff emerges as a consistent positive predictor in both models, while access to research infrastructure is especially important for explaining broader collaboration portfolios. The descriptive findings additionally show that collaboration is concentrated among production and service companies and among enterprises with longer market experience. Taken together, the findings indicate that science-business collaboration remains selective and uneven. Cooperation depends not only on companies' internal capacities and innovation orientation, but also on the practical attractiveness of academic partners and the availability of usable institutional resources. The article argues that policies aimed at strengthening university-industry relations should therefore combine support for companies' absorptive and innovation capabilities with efforts to improve the credibility, competence, and infrastructure accessibility of scientific institutions. By separating the occurrence of collaboration from its breadth, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how enterprise-level and institutional factors shape university-industry interaction.