The Importance and Mutual Benefit of Vibrant Relationships between Industry and Academia

Academic researchers have devoted considerable effort to understand the nature and consequences of alliances between firms. Their findings reveal that collaboration and co-operation between firms offers demonstrable benefits, whether in the form of cost reductions, resource sharing, improvements in competitive position, reduced uncertainty or enhanced learning opportunities. And indeed many of these benefits are also of relevance to strategic partnerships between universities, as Chapter 6 explained. Interest in the benefits of inter-organizational co-operation has also been extended to look at the case of industry and academia, although much of this research has focused on co-operations at a local or regional level. In part at least, this appears to have been driven by the active interest of policy makers in the role of universities as a source of innovation to support regional economic growth and development. Relationships that operate at a global level have received rather less attention but are equally capable of delivering significant benefits to both the business and the university partners, as the case study of BP that is contained in this chapter demonstrates.