Industry and academia in convergence: Micro-institutional dimensions of R&D collaboration

Research on university–industry (UI) collaboration has addressed how cultural differences between firms and universities tend to impede knowledge exchange and impose challenges on project control if not properly addressed. Relatively little research has examined in-depth how changing institutional logics of R&D practice shape concrete UI collaborations at the micro-level of interacting researchers. The purpose of this study is to examine how conflicting and converging institutional logics of R&D work enable and constrain the process of R&D collaboration between small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and public university departments. This qualitative study covers the total population of public university departments and firms involved in collaborative research projects sponsored by a programme under the National Strategic Research Council (NSRC) in Denmark. The findings show that many of the collaborating researchers experienced an institutional convergence constituting a shared cultural space for knowledge exchange and communication in their joint projects. In some cases this lack of normative conflict was due to a blurring of institutional logics governing R&D in the two sectors. Furthermore, some researchers were able to use their social skills to bridge perceived institutional gaps. Implications for future research and UI collaboration are addressed.