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Sources of Ideas for Applied University Research, and their Effect on the Application of Findings in Australian Industry
Abstract
This paper investigates a number of projects to determine whether the findings of university research undertaken in response to industry's expressed needs were more likely to achieve industrial application than the findings of research which owed its origin to the ideas of university researchers. Seventeen research projects, pursued by chemical engineers and food technologists working in six Australian universities, have been examined. The progress of the findings has been measured against five stages in the process of industrial adoption. A statistical test of the ranking of all the projects suggests that, whereas there was no significant difference between progress made by university-initiated and industry-initiated projects overall, the industry-initiated projects made significantly more progress towards adoption than those initiated by universities and pursued without interaction with industry. The projects initiated by universities in which there was constant interaction with industry were all adopted. The number of cases studied is small and the sample is biased towards those with obvious potential for industrial application. Within these limitations, and with the awareness that innovation in industry depends on many variables, the evidence of these case studies suggests that close interaction between university researchers and industry may be more important than the sector in which research ideas arise in determining whether that research will find industrial application.
University-industry interaction has many supporters and some detractors in the scholarly literature. Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy frameworks emphasise interactions between universities and stakeholders other than industry, and the contribution made by these interactions to a range of goals such as environmental sustainability. Given the significance of discourse to shape public opinion, it is important that academic and policy actors convey positive views of university interaction. We investigate whether this is happening by examining representations of university interactions in popular culture. Since public opinion can shape science, our investigation could also suggest new research questions. Our sample includes science fiction novels that won prestigious awards (Hugo, Neb-ula and Locus) for the genre, from the 1970s to the 2010s. The use of an objective corpus of the literature increases external validity, a methodological novelty in representations of science studies. We show how science fiction, predominantly, is critical of university interactions , reflecting a lack of convincing institutional narratives on their benefits. The apprehensions expressed about interactions with industry or other stakeholders are equivalent. We offer some recommendations for research on STI policy frameworks to incorporate critical views of university-society interaction, including threats to sustainability, and new research questions related to defence of non-disclosure of information for political reasons and conflicts of equity due to the lack of career progression for 'disengaged' academics.
Marketing staff in Australian food manufacturing firms were questioned on use of and expenditure on advertising and marketing information services, on the sources from which they derive new ideas, and on favoured strategies for different aspects of their work. The thirty replies are presented in the framework of marketing theory and of Australian food marketing practice. Some clear contrasts arise between high and low information users though the sample is too small to reveal systematic variations according to size of firm, type of industry, etc. The most striking findings are the high value placed by the marketers on product movement data, the difficulty in getting expenditure data, and the lack of use of formal external information sources, especially the online databases, whether those specialising in marketing data or those with demographic and general economic data of relevance.
Earlier researchers like Turkeli, suggested that ‘the factors which determine the productivity of scientists are admittedly
complex and perhaps not amenable to real scientific analysis′. The present investigation was designed with the sole purpose
of confronting such a complex problem. Nearly 200 variables influencing research productivity were collected through relevant
literature, analysis of biographies of great scientists, and discussion with eminent scientists. Finally, through a critical
examination, 80 variables were selected for the use of Q-sort technique. The sample for the study consisted of a cross section
of scientists ranging from Fellows of Indian National Science Academy to young agricultural scientists. Mailed questionnaires
and personal interview methods were used for collecting data. Out of a total of 912 respondents, reply was obtained from 325.
On the basis of Q-sorted data, 26 variables were selected for further analysis and they were subjected to principal component
factor analysis. The results indicated eleven factors affecting research productivity of scientists. They were: persistence,
resource adequacy, access to literature, initiative, intelligence, creativity, learning capability, stimulative leadership,
concern for advancement, external orientation, and professional commitment.
A model of the industrial adoption process forms the conceptual framework for an analysis of the purchase of a machine-tool innovation. This article explores five aspects of the industrial adoption process.