Research On The Mechanism Of Coupling Interaction Innovation Of University-industry Collaboration

With the establishment of a national development strategy to strengthen self-dependent innovative capability and to build an innovation-oriented country, university-industry collaboration is rising to be a hot issue with an increasingly heated concern from the government, universities or other research institutions as well as the enterprises. However, the status quo of university-industry collaboration at home fails to meet the needs of the current situation, still low in innovation performance, which falls far behind that of the developed countries and regions. Thus, there is urgent necessity and significance in theory as well as in practice for further researches on the mechanism of university-industry collaboration.Traditional university-industry collaboration theory fails to account for the effective cooperation between the two heteroid organizations of universities or other research institutions and enterprises, and achieve no profound interpretation of the interaction during the cooperation. And therefore, based on comprehensive literature review of related researches both at home and abroad, this paper proposes the concept of coupling interaction innovation of university-industry collaboration. This paper then implements a systematic study on the mechanism of the coupling interaction innovation of university-industry collaboration via theoretical analysis, survey research as well as empirical analysis during the current research, which expands current research results further ahead in theory as well as puts forward some effective approaches in practice to the improvement of the innovation performance for university-industry collaboration. Major achievements and conclusions are as followed:Firstly, this paper defines the concept of coupling interaction innovation of university-industry collaboration and investigates into the cooperative dynamics of university-industry collaboration. The coupling interaction between university-industry agents, namely universities or other research institutions and enterprises is the foundation for collaborative innovation:coupling refers to complementation and compatibility of the innovation system among its subsystems of physics, knowledge, cultural values and management; interaction means interactive effect between cooperative agents, with focal emphasis on interactive behaviors and processes. The internal dynamics consists of motive powers of the development of enterprises and universities or other research institutions, as well as mobility of research staff in both parties, while the external dynamics is composed of pressure and stress of the competition and government impetus. The subjects of the dynamics system exert particular effect upon individual objects and behaviors with contribution to the dynamic system respectively different. The dynamics as well as interactive forces in between contributes to the coupling interaction innovation in common effort.Secondly, this paper addresses collaborative modes and collaborative process from a perspective of coupling interaction innovation of university-industry collaboration. University-industry collaboration is distinguished into three coupling interaction innovation modes, namely the high, the medium and the low, with different functions and applicable to different objects and cooperative agents, which are all effective. An evolutionary relationship is observed and argued among the three modes as, the loâ†'the mediumâ†'the high, with innovation performance improved also in the same sequence. The collaborative process is segmented into five phases: the establishment phase, the integration phrase, the administration phase, the delivery phase and the assessment phase. With individual features and objects of the five different phases, coupling interaction differs in depth and range.Thirdly, this paper implements an investigation into the mechanism of coupling interaction innovation of university-industry collaboration. The expansion of knowledge basis is accomplished only by interaction between cooperative agents, and during the coupling interaction process, knowledge acquisition, sharing, creation and expansion are realized. With the establishment of an expansion model of knowledge basis, analysis shows that, more compatible the coupling is, more intensified the interaction would become, and therefore more knowledge innovation results would be gained in a certain period of time. From the perspective of knowledge, this paper sets up an innovation model in order to explore the mechanism of coupling interaction innovation of university-industry collaboration. In the course of the interaction between cooperative agents, common efforts by the coupling of the system of physics, the coupling of the system of knowledge basis, the coupling of the system of cultural values and the coupling of the system of management contribute to knowledge innovation in the end. In addition, innovation performance of knowledge is much dependent upon the coupling of management system and the system of cultural values.Fourthly, this paper also conducts a survey research on the impact of coupling interaction of university-industry collaboration upon innovation performance. Overall, the significant role coupling interaction plays primarily influences the interactive behaviors of cooperative agents in the innovation process, and with this influence it finally impacts upon knowledge performance. For learning and development performance as well as innovation task performance, subsystems of the innovation system exert an indirect influence, as listed in sequence below from the strongest to the weakest:the subsystem of management, the subsystem of cultural values, the subsystem of knowledge and the subsystem of physics. Grounded on the research results, this paper also offers a reliability and validity scale for the coupling of the innovation system, interactive behaviors and innovation performance.Fifthly, this paper deals with the management mechanism of coupling interaction innovation of university-industry collaboration. The selection of cooperative partnership can be realized from two perspectives, either the coupling or the interaction. Focal concern of the management mechanism should be given to the evaluation of the interaction process, control of the interaction in different innovation phases and knowledge operation in the course of the interaction and issues alike. In order to strengthen the risk control, risk awareness should be primarily established; risk management institutions and scientific evaluation & decision mechanism are to be set up; smooth communication channels are to be found; effective risk-taking strategy is to be nailed down and policy system related is to be either established or improved. For benefits distribution, principles should be formulated according to the consistency between benefits and material investment, and between benefits and innovative investment, and according to the risk-taking principle and the principle to achieve systematically optimized benefits. For cultural construction, mutual trust, fusion and tolerance for failure are to be enhanced.Potential innovative points of this paper are exhibited in the following three aspects:above all, this paper offers a clear definition of the concept of coupling interaction and based on this foundation, this paper proposes an approach from the perspective of coupling interaction to researches on university-industry collaboration, which is a tentative approach to the subject relationship between cooperative agents; next, the current research also reveals the innovation mechanism of coupling interaction innovation of university-industry collaboration form the perspective of knowledge, which is a tentative exploration into the knowledge innovation mechanism across cooperative organizational boundaries; also this paper offers empirical analysis of the impact of coupling interaction upon innovation performance, which is a new thought in the investigation into the relationship between innovation performance and its influencing factors. At the same time, this paper puts forward a practical management mechanism founded on coupling interaction innovation theory.