Academia a new knowledge supplier to the industry! Uncovering barriers in the process

Purpose - In the era of Industry 4.0, knowledge component plays a vital role in manufacturing. For tacking the new complexities of the business, a concept of knowledge supply chain (KSC) is being proposed, which takes into account of knowledge component. Higher education institutes (HEIs) which are primary creator of knowledge are important foundations of such supply chain and act as the “knowledge supplier.” The purpose of this paper is to focus on why the HEIs are failed to become knowledge supplier in developing country like India. Design/methodology/approach - This research paper adopts a resource-based theory to explore the concept and identify barriers which obstructs the progress of HEIs to become prominent knowledge supplier to industry. To tackle the research problem, an integrated hybrid approach of interpretive structural modeling–analytic hierarchy process is used. Expert elicitation was engaged to find out the prominence of each barrier and the interrelations among them. Findings - Based on literature review, eight critical barriers were recognized. The findings put forward a four layer structural model. Based on this model, various remedial actions are also suggested to eliminate the barriers or lessen their negative effects on KSC. Practical implications - This study finds its practical implication in higher education reforms as the identified barriers could enhance the decision-making quality regarding academia–industry interaction. Social implications - Using the results of the study, HEIs could improve their social sustainability as they have different stakeholders covering wider sections of society and one being industry. Originality/value - Most of the existing studies talk about short-term interactions like technology transfer. This study takes into account the barriers which are acting as roadblocks in long-term knowledge supplying role of HEIs.