An analysis of the organisational factors that determine education-related university-business cooperation activities in manufacturing SMEs

Abstract

Cooperation between universities and business is manifest in a wide range of activities related to the three missions of the entrepreneurial university: education, research and entrepreneurship. However, the vast majority of University-Business Cooperation (UBC) literature has focused on R&D-related activities. This bias has given rise to a lack of knowledge of the organisational context-related factors that shape businesses’ cooperation with universities. In order to address this research gap, this quantitative study, by means of a series of multivariate linear regression models, identifies the organisational context-related factors that determine manufacturing SMEs’ cooperation levels in education-related UBC activities. Applying a questionnaire to a sample of 332 manufacturing SMEs located in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (Spain), the impact is analysed of organisational context-related factors – general business characteristics, business openness, R&D, innovation, and UBC willingness and support – on 5 types of UBC activities that have been identified and classified in the field of education, namely, mobility of students, dual education, curriculum co-design, curriculum co-delivery and lifelong learning.