Untangling the Industry- University- Research Institute Innovation Network: Formation, Development and Performance Measurement

Abstract

The Industry-University-Research institute (I-U-R) innovation network has attracted academic researchers’ interest increasingly. However, there is little research investigate the I-U-R innovation network from the perspective of network development. To fill this gap, the present article reviews the researches on the I-U-R innovation network, mainly focusing on the three aspects: the collaboration patterns, the development and its influence factors, and performance measurement. Literature analysis shows that researches on I-U-R innovation network mostly concentrated on the joint R&D activities and joint patenting activities. The development process of I-U-R innovation network was influenced by some factors, including the regional factors, government policy and organizational attributions of cooperators and so on. On evaluating the innovation performance, most of current researches investigated the measurable performance of firm, while the personal knowledge exchange effect and innovation performance of university or research institute were less to be studied in empirical studies. Finally, the current researches have been summarized and some potential directions have been proposed for further study.

Keywords: Industry-University-Research institute collaboration, Innovation Network, Network Development