A critical component of the nation?s innovation explosion has been collaborative partnerships between industry and universities. More so than relations between multiple industry members (industry-industry) or government agencies (industry-government), industry-university relationships are focused on research and development. The number of industry-university research centers (IUC) in the United States has increased dramatically over the last two decades (National Science Board, 2002). However, organizations vary tremendously in terms of the benefits they report from participation in an IUC (NSF- IUCRC Process/ Outcome Survey Results, 2003). The underlying cause of the variation in benefits is yet unknown (Ailes, Roessner & Feller, 1997). Different roles played by the boundary role incumbents who represent the organization to the center, known as the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), may affect firm benefits which in turn affect center outcomes. The purpose of the current study is to examine the tasks and characteristics of boundary spanning IAB representatives and their impact on vital outcomes associated with IUC research including R&D, commercialization, and professional networking. The current study utilized a cross sectional survey design and examined (n=220) IAB representatives from 35 national and state level IUCs. Results from OLS and logistic regression analyses suggest that IAB representatives play not one but four distinct roles (representative, internal boundary-spanner, external boundary-spanner, and technology champion). External boundary-spanning was found to be the strongest predictor of increased firm benefits. Guidance for firms seeking to maximize benefits from participation in an IUC, and best practices for personnel selection and training of an IAB representative are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-11232004-124833 |
| Date | 23 November 2004 |
| Creators | Tarant, Stephanie Ann |
| Contributors | Denis O. Gray, Mark A. Wilson, Catherine R. Zimmer, Samuel Bob Pond, III |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11232004-124833/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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