P.C. van der Sijde

Profiting from Knowledge Circulation: The Gains from University-Industry Interaction.

In this paper the concept of knowledge circulation is explored and placed in a social systems approach that distinguishes four types of ‘capital’: cultural, strategic, network and economic. Knowledge circulation is a form of university–industry interaction that accommodates the objectives of what are, in many respects, unequal partners and outlines the capital gains for all participants. In the final section, the implications for the internal and external marketing of science are presented.

Support for Entrepreneurship at the University of Twente.

The authors describe the University of Twente (UT) as an innovative and entrepreneurial university. In demonstration of this approach, they discuss the ways in which the University participates in the encouragement of individual and institutional entrepreneurial activity and disseminates expert knowledge on issues relating to entrepreneurship. Graduates as well as faculty can benefit from UT schemes for entrepreneurs, and the establishment of a Student Entrepreneurship Centre is underway. The paper concludes with two case studies of projects which have followed the progression from a research unit or activity at UT into a limited company. The authors argue that higher education institutions must adopt active policies to enable both students and staff to initiate entrepreneurial activities.

Attracting High-Tech Companies The Case of the University of Twente and its Region

From 1998 to 2001 a consortium of regional partners – the University of Twente, the Enschede Foundation Business & Science Park, the Regional Development Agency, and the Municipality of Enschede – carried out a project to attract new business to the area of Twente and to the Business & Science Park in particular. In that period, a well-functioning structure for cooperation among the partners was established in order to attract companies in sectors related to the principal research areas of the university Cooperation in the consortium is analysed using the ‘4S’ model (scope of cooperation; skills; scale; social networks) to identify the added value of the partners in this endeavour. It emerges that the four parties were complementary to each other. In total, some 13 companies have been attracted to the region, 161 jobs have been created and it is expected that in the next five years those 13 companies will create around 250 new jobs. Interviews were carried out with the companies to assess the value for them of the universitys technology research and facilities. The results indicate that the technological expertise of the university was and remains one of the key attractions of the region for the companies.

Training Researchers To Commercialize Research Results.

The commercialization of university research is usually handled by technology transfer officers. In this paper the authors report on the development of a training course in research commercialization for researchers themselves, who, although the most important people in the process, typically have little knowledge of this important area. The course is designed to create awareness of key topics and to introduce participants to the different concepts involved in the commercialization of knowledge – protection of intellectual property, spin-off companies, and doing with business with commercial enterprises. The pilot training courses were given in three different European locations (Leuven, Münster, Nijmegen). The authors report on participants views of the training and suggest revisions for future courses.

Regional Development and the European Consortium of Innovative Universities.

The European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) was established in 1996. This network of universities currently has eleven partners and two associate partners. All the universities are ‘innovative’ and ‘entrepreneurial’ in research, education, or regional development (technology transfer) – or in more than one of these areas. In this paper ECIU activities in the context of regional development are described, especially in terms of the ways information is exchanged and shared. The exchange of information is not just among the ECIU partners: each university has around it an infrastructure that includes incubators, science parks and other regional entities, and the exchange of information extends to these organizations. The exchange of information and experience relating to best practice is important for the partners to sustain a ‘learning’ network in a ‘learning’ Europe.

University–Business Co-operation in Indonesian Higher Education for Innovation

Abstract nThis chapter explores emerging concerns and issues of University and Business Co-operation (UBC) at Indonesian universities. Over decades, the Indonesian government has been implemented policies and strategies to stimulate collaboration between universities and business by offering them a variety of funding schemes. It has been aimed to foster innovation and to reach the government ambition, to make Indonesia as a country in the innovation-driven economy by 2020. Our study was based on a desk evaluation and the secondary data. We collected and examined documents of the governmental policies, universities’ strategies, relevant UBC articles, etc. in order to get an overview of UBC in Indonesia. Our findings suggests that the participation rate of universities and academics in UBC, especially with those funded by the government, remains low. The government expected more participation by offering more funds; however, it was not successfully achieved. We conclude that to increase the participation of universities and academics in UBC, they need to resolve the different institutional logics with their business counterparts.

University—Region Interaction: Managing the Interface

European universities have three main tasks: education, research and service to the community. This last element of their mission is becoming more and more important, and the pressure on universities to engage in activities related to regional development is increasing. The creation of knowledge is not something that a university does in isolation: it is a process that depends on cooperation with others. The interaction of university with its region, and with industry based in the region, is vitally important. This introductory article sketches the background to this special issue of Industry and Higher Education, dedicated to the theme ‘The region and its university: European perspectives’.

Special Issue: Universities as entrepreneurial organizations - Introduction

Victoria Galan-Muros, Peter van der Sijde and Arno Meerman are the Guest Editors of this special issue. Peter van der Sijde is Associate Professor in the Department of Organization Sciences of VU University Amsterdam, De Belelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: pc.van.der.sijde@fsw.vu.nl. He specializes in (academic) entrepreneurship and university–industry cooperation. Victoria Galan-Muros is a Lecturer and Researcher and Arno Meerman is a Researcher and Business Development Manager at the Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre of the Münster University of Applied Sciences, Johann-Krane-Weg 27, 48149 Münster, Germany. E-mail: galanmuros@fh-muenster.de; meerman@uiin.org.

Entrepreneurship Education in Context: A Case Study of the University of Twente

The University of Twente is an entrepreneurial university; this means more than just having a focus on entrepreneurship, but in the framework of this paper we restrict ourselves to this (for a more elaborate discussion on the entrepreneurial university we refer to Shane 2004; Clark 1998; Bok 2003). Entrepreneurship is an essential and consistent element in the university policy since the early 1980s and concerns infrastructure, spin-offs, teaching and research. In this paper we first give an overview of the context and how it evolved in Twente, then we focus on the teaching programme and we close with some remarks.

Teacher Praise and Classroom Climate: Another Paradoxical Relation

In an empirical study of 14 teachers in two types of Dutch secondary education, a total of 68 lessons were systematically observed for the amount and type of teacher praise. It appeared that in the lower groups the teachers showed more teacher praise behaviour than in the higher groups. This holds for student-oriented feedback as well as for task-oriented feedback Classroom climate is measured with the DCCQ. From correlations between teacher praise data and scales in the DCCQ, it appears that there are strong relationships between the perception of order and organisation in the classroom and the positive feedback of the teacher. A similar relationship was found for the perception of teacher control.