University Managers’ and Researchers’ Drivers on the Initiation of University-Industry Collaborations in Emerging Economies

The pace of development is extremely high in emerging economies (EE), especially in Asia. This rapid development leads to an increased demand for new knowledge to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. In an innovation based economy, universities are key producers of new original knowledge and thus, universities can become an important external source of knowledge for companies in EE. Governments in EE develop initiatives to motivate companies and universities to collaborate. At universities, these collaborations are initiated on a faculty and managerial level. The researchers’ and managers’ drivers in initiating UIC are well studied in the European and US literature, yet more empirical research on these drivers in an EE context is needed. We address the following research question: “What are the university managers’ and researchers’ drivers to initiate university-industry collaborations in emerging economies?” We start from the existing literature on drivers of university managers and researchers to initiate UIC and build hypotheses on these drivers’ relevance in the context of EE. To answer our research question, we conduct a questionnaire among researchers and managers at three Vietnamese universities. We compare both perspectives and identify similarities and differences in both researchers’ and managers’ drivers. This paper extends the existing literature on UIC in EE. Based on our findings, university management can review their reward and motivation system. Governments in EE can adapt their policies and initiatives to promote initiation of UIC at the universities by understanding what drives the different stakeholders within universities. Companies can use our findings to customize their communication and collaboration strategies with universities.