Bridging the Gap between Firms and Universities: Firm Links with Research and Technology Organisations in Different Types of Regions

This study examined how collaboration with research and technology organisations (RTOs) was associated with industry-university collaboration as part of firms’ innovative activities in different types of geographical regions. By combining data from the Danish Research and Innovation Survey and Danish register data at different points in time, the link between firms’ collaboration with RTOs and their collaboration with universities in Denmark was studied. Also, the link between the firms’ locations in peripheral regions, non-metropolitan university regions or the metropolitan region of Copenhagen and their collaboration with universities in Denmark were also studied. The results suggest that firms that collaborate with RTOs are more likely to collaborate with universities. This paper argues that collaboration with RTOs is associated with a higher likelihood of industry-university collaboration because this experience of collaboration allows firms to overcome barriers for collaboration with universities, which are related to differences in norms and incentive systems between firms and universities. When looking at different types of regions, firms in peripheral and metropolitan regions that collaborated with RTOs were more likely to collaborate with universities. However, firms in non-metropolitan university regions that collaborated with RTOs were not more likely to collaborate with universities.