Barriers affecting co-founders’ dynamic in university symbiosis program
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Date
2020
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Abstract
Commercialization of university’s research is able to boost national economy, offering jobs opportunities, goods and services to society. However, the state of commercialization in Malaysia is less than satisfactory. Malaysian government is trying to improve the commercialization by launching of University Symbiosis Program i.e., a type of university-industry collaborative commercialization that requires technopreneurs (i.e., Chief Executive Officers) and academic researchers (i.e., main inventors) working together to commercialize universities technologies through formation of Symbiosis Companies. The commercialization in the program is not easy since technopreneurs are young graduates. University Symbiosis Program is a unique program in which few studies in the past have investigated the program, particularly barriers affecting the program. Therefore, this study aims to explore the barriers that could affect the program. It uses qualitative method conducted over two phases of data collection. The first phase of data collection involved preliminary interviews and personal communications with officers in charge of University Symbiosis Program to understand barriers affecting the program. In the second phase, a total of 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with technopreneurs and academic researchers who were responsible to form and incubate Symbiosis Companies. Thematic analysis disclosed six barriers during formation stage of Symbiosis Companies i.e., culture, dedication, competency, management of government funding, expectation and mutual trust. Meanwhile, five barriers during incubation stage i.e., competency, culture, dedication, expectation and mutual trust. Improvements in the pertinent stages of Symbiosis Companies were also proposed by using thematic analysis. Moreover, quasi-statistical analysis revealed that there is no difference between the barriers during formation and incubation stages of Symbiosis Companies faced by technopreneurs and academic researchers. Finally, a comprehensive framework of barriers affecting University Symbiosis Program was proposed with the contribution to extend the body of knowledge and literature on university-industry collaborative commercialization, as well as, provide implications for policy makers, technopreneurs and academic researchers to facilitate the commercialization in University Symbiosis Program, which in turn improve Malaysian commercialization state.
Description
Thesis (PhD. (Management))
Keywords
Academic-industrial collaboration—Research, Education, Higher—Research, Intellectual cooperation