Strategic knowledge management within subsidised entrepreneurial university-industry partnerships
ISSN: 0025-1747
Article publication date: 11 September 2019
Issue publication date: 22 November 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how collaborative/opportunistic behaviours within subsidised university-industry partnerships are influencing the design/implementation of strategic knowledge management practices in emerging economies.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed conceptual model was analysed with a retrospective multiple case study approach integrated by four subsidised entrepreneurial universities-industry partnerships of the Incentive Programme for Innovation from 2009 to 2014 in Mexico.
Findings
Entrepreneurial universities and industrial organisations confirm insights about dual collaborative-opportunistic behaviour within subsidised partnerships. The main effects of behaviours represent an increment in the knowledge management costs during the monitoring stages. The ex ante collaboration agreement anticipated and protected intellectual capabilities.
Research limitations/implications
This research contributes to the ongoing discussion about public administrations’ opportunistic behaviours in emerging economies (Tripsas et al., 1995), the effectiveness of the innovation and entrepreneurial programmes (Guerrero and Urbano, 2019b), and the link between dual behaviours (collaborative and opportunistic) and knowledge management practices (de Wit-de Vries et al., 2018).
Practical implications
New questions emerged about the effectiveness of subsidies as new modes of knowledge generation among entrepreneurial universities and industrial organisations, as well as the need for implementing strategic knowledge management practices in the public administration.
Social implications
For policymakers, the study presents insights about the effectiveness of public resources. Policymakers should understand challenges and re-define/re-incentivize the productive value chain as well as implement mechanisms to control opportunistic behaviours on potential subsidised firms.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the academic debate about how entrepreneurial universities and industrial organisations are strategically managing their knowledge when participating in subsidised partnerships in emerging economies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support from the interviewed enterprise-university partnerships. The authors also would like to thank to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that contributed substantially to the development of the manuscripts. Fernando Herrera acknowledges financial support for PhD studies from Tecnológico de Monterrey. David Urbano acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy & Competitiveness (project ECO2017-87885-P), the Economy & Knowledge Department–Catalan Government (project 2017-SGR-1056) and ICREA under the ICREA Academia Programme.
Citation
Guerrero, M., Herrera, F. and Urbano, D. (2019), "Strategic knowledge management within subsidised entrepreneurial university-industry partnerships", Management Decision, Vol. 57 No. 12, pp. 3280-3300. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-10-2018-1126
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited