Impact of Diverse Support on Performance of Industry–Academia Collaborative Research Teams

Abstract

Bibliometric analyses show that industry–academia collaborative research projects tend to achieve higher performance. However, these collaborations often encounter barriers such as connection difficulties, resource constraints, differences in organizational culture, and institutional distance between industry and academia. Effective support from governments, firms, and universities is crucial to address these challenges and enhance the performance of industry–academia collaborative research teams. This study empirically examines the impact of such support on research performance using data from more than 200 collaborative research teams in Japan. This study differs from previous studies in several aspects. First, bibliographic information is matched with survey data, which enables team-level analysis instead of focusing on firms, universities, or regions. Bibliometric analysis provides an objective performance measure, i.e., the citation counts of research papers, whereas survey data offer abundant insights into team dynamics. Second, whereas most prior studies primarily examined financial support, this study considers a broader range of support measures, including the introduction of appropriate collaborators (networking), funding, provision of research equipment, management of intellectual property (IP), and assistance with administrative work. Empirical results reveal that all support measures, except for assistance with administrative work, significantly enhance research-team performance. Notably, assistance with administrative work presents a significant negative impact. Comparing the positive effects of various support measures, soft measures such as networking and IP management exert a greater impact than hard measures such as funding and equipment provision. Further analysis of the unexpected negative impact of administrative assistance indicates that administrative support occasionally results in cultural conflicts between industry and academia. These conflicts partially mediate the negative relationship between administrative support and team performance. However, administrative support from a third party in the presence of cultural conflicts within a team improves team performance. Further research is necessitated to determine the type of administrative support that can effectively bridge the organizational culture gap and enhance team performance.