Knowledge Interactions between Universities and Industry in Austria: Sectoral Patterns and Determinants

Abstract

The role of knowledge exchange and research cooperation between public research and the enterprise sector has received increasing attention in the analysis of innovation and technological change. The paper attempts to measure the sectoral pattern for different types of knowledge interactions and to explore the determinants of knowledge interaction between different fields of research and sectors of economic activity in Austria. The analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset on various types of knowledge interactions between university departments and private firms in Austria in the 1990s. A methodology for interaction models is used in order to identify determinants of knowledge interactions. The empirical results indicate that the intensity of knowledge interactions does not follow a simple sectoral pattern (assuming intense interactions between high-tech industries and firm-orientated technical sciences and low interactions in humanities and low-tech industries). They are rather influenced by a large set of different factors producing a complex pattern of interactions.

Keywords: Knowledge interactions, Innovation systems, University–industry relations