Knowledge and Technology Transfer, Innovation and Competitive Advantage: Past and Present
Rationale
The focus of this project is knowledge transfer as a key driver of innovation - an essential component in the promotion of UK Government policy linked to greater economic wealth creation which lies at the heart of UK competitiveness in the global economy.
The research is positioned within growing academic networks and policy debates at regional, national and international levels. It is built around the nature of knowledge-based economies and the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) within those economies. Underpinning knowledge exchange processes are the relationships which exist between university-business/business-university, and how these occur at the regional level to form the stimulus in creating more innovative systems of governance to offer unique competitive advantage capability within regional business in the global economy.
The encouragement of these relationships are crucial in regions such as the North West of England. These regions are undergoing post-industrial regeneration and have performed poorly in terms of economic growth and productivity, compared with the rest of the UK. As such, the research will address the growing gap behind knowledge exchange(s) between university and business. It considers the causal effects of such relations through identifying the underlying social processes which impact upon these relationships in an attempt to build more successful and sustainable knowledge and technology transfer flow(s) in future.
Research aims and objectives
The project will improve our understanding of university-industry links by evaluating the extent to which knowledge and technology transfer have the potential to transform university-business relationships. It will explore how education, business communities and policymakers’ conceptions and priorities around innovation and entrepreneurial management can shape HEI funding strategies, programmes and projects.
The specific project objectives are to:
- Explore how the social, economic, political and institutional forces are shaping knowledge and technology exchange between Higher Education Institutes (HEI) and business communities since the 1960s and consider how this has affected the environment for knowledge exchange
- Identify the forces facilitating and hindering successful knowledge exchange
- Utilise specific historical and undertake contemporary case study examples of successful knowledge exchange to build understanding of the processes involved
- Develop a multi-disciplinary methodology for evaluating knowledge exchange in order to build unique innovation capabilities
- Identify gaps in knowledge and establish a road map to explore these emerging opportunities
Collaborative research
The project is the result of collaborative research with other universities and regional bodies and builds on EPSRC research on knowledge transfer based within Lancaster University’s Infolab21. In addition, the University of Lancaster Management School and Institute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (IEED) have a strong reputation for developing knowledge transfer outreach activity. This is especially illustrated by the Institute's highly successful Leading Enterprise and Development (LEAD) programme, designed to facilitate leadership development and growth in SMEs and micro businesses.
The project team comprises:
- Professor Mary Rose, Principal Investigator, University of Lancaster - m.rose@lancaster.ac.uk
- Dr Sarah Jack, Co-Investigator, University of Lancaster - s.l.jack@lancaster.ac.uk
- Dr Lorraine Johnston, Research Fellow, University of Lancaster - lorrainejohnston@lancaster.ac.uk
- Dr Nigel Lockett, Co-Investigator, Brunel University - Nigel.Lockett@brunel.ac.uk
- Dr Sarah Robinson, Co-Investigator, Open University - S.K.Robinson@open.ac.uk
- Dr Moira Decter, PhD Researcher, University of Lancaster - m.decter@lancaster.ac.uk, (ESRC CASE studentship with Professor Mary Rose
- Dr Frank Cave, PhD Supervisor, University of Lancaster - f.cave@lancaster.ac.uk).
Funding and timescale
This collaborative research is funded through the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) targeted Initiative in Innovation. The research will be conducted between October 2007 and December 2010.
