Leading to an organisation's competitive advantage: antecedents and outcomes of the industry and university collaborative relationships

Abstract

This paper aims to explore and analyse the impact of organisational factors on the outcome of the university-industry collaboration towards competitive advantages. Based on an extensive literature review and initial qualitative research, a theoretical framework is constructed with six antecedents (commitment, trust, communication, management mechanism, reputation and understanding) of the outcome and its relationship with a competitive advantage as its consequence. A structural equation model (PLS-SEM) is then used for an empirical analysis of 240 responses to a survey of people in business involved in university-industry relationships. Findings show that four factors had a significant positive impact on the outcome of collaborative relationships, among which the management mechanism was the most important of the results in the collaboration. Additionally, the higher the outcome of university-industry collaboration, the greater the competitive advantages. The paper concludes with recommendations and directions for future research.