TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘How do firms reach out to foreign universities? Inventors’ personal characteristics and the multinational structure of firms’
AU - Fassio, Claudio
AU - Geuna, Aldo
AU - Rossi, Federica
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - We analyze the determinants of firm-based inventors’ collaborations with universities abroad, comparing them with collaborations with national universities. We propose a micro-founded theoretical framework that introduces the role of personal linkages and global organizational pipelines as drivers of international academic collaborations, and we empirically investigate collaborations with national and international universities in a sample of inventors in Italy. We find that in general international collaborations depend positively on inventors working for multinational enterprises (MNEs). Instead for collaborations with national universities, the personal local linkages of the inventors play a large role. However, we also find that for collaborations with very distant universities abroad, such as US ones, working for an MNE is less crucial and the personal linkages of inventors become more important. In this case being an inventor with a network of foreign colleagues and with greater acquaintance with the norms of open science facilitates the interaction. This applies also to inventors who work for MNEs. The results point to a hybrid model of global linkages in the case of collaborations between firms and universities, in which both the personal international linkages of the inventors and the global organizational pipelines of MNEs play an important role.
AB - We analyze the determinants of firm-based inventors’ collaborations with universities abroad, comparing them with collaborations with national universities. We propose a micro-founded theoretical framework that introduces the role of personal linkages and global organizational pipelines as drivers of international academic collaborations, and we empirically investigate collaborations with national and international universities in a sample of inventors in Italy. We find that in general international collaborations depend positively on inventors working for multinational enterprises (MNEs). Instead for collaborations with national universities, the personal local linkages of the inventors play a large role. However, we also find that for collaborations with very distant universities abroad, such as US ones, working for an MNE is less crucial and the personal linkages of inventors become more important. In this case being an inventor with a network of foreign colleagues and with greater acquaintance with the norms of open science facilitates the interaction. This applies also to inventors who work for MNEs. The results point to a hybrid model of global linkages in the case of collaborations between firms and universities, in which both the personal international linkages of the inventors and the global organizational pipelines of MNEs play an important role.
KW - Firm-based inventors
KW - Global pipelines
KW - International knowledge flows
KW - MNEs
KW - Personal linkages
KW - University-industry collaborations
U2 - 10.1016/j.jwb.2023.101431
DO - 10.1016/j.jwb.2023.101431
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85148372893
SN - 1090-9516
VL - 58
JO - Journal of World Business
JF - Journal of World Business
IS - 3
M1 - 101431
ER -