Developing University-Business Cooperation through Evidence-based Management: A German Case

As every new field of practice, university-business cooperation (UBC) is undergoing growing pains in the search for successful approaches toward linking the scientific and business world. These growing pains are often based on the lack of market-oriented thinking and acting and the focus on day-to-day operations as opposed to a critical evaluation of the actions taken in the past. In line with this, this article aims at evaluating the opportunity to advance university-business cooperation through evidence-based management. More specifically, it reflects how a scientific-analytical UBC unit might complement the strategic and operational perspective of UBC, contributing to the advancement of an institution's UBC but also knowledge on UBC in general. Taking the Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre at Münster University of Applied Sciences as a case study, the article highlights how such an analytical-scientific UBC unit can generate various benefits, provided that the right setup and the acknowledgement of specific success factors are given.