The Transfer of Knowledge and University-Firm Tensions

Abstract

Innovation is transformed in an encompassing domain where different types of actors are connected and interrelated. Nevertheless, academic science often feels threatened by the new emerging institutional paradigm characterized by the economic exploitation of public research results. This chapter explores university-firm relations and tensions, discussing the increased relevance of knowledge transfer. The ideas of Ludwik Fleck, intellectual precursor of Social Studies of S&T, contribute to the understanding of the difficulties of communication between different collectives, their styles of thought and the importance of ‘marginal individuals' in connecting different institutional spheres. Based on a qualitative approach to the case study of a Portuguese university attempting to create bridges with the business world, the text illustrates differences between the ‘academic science' and the firm, the recent institutionalization of commercialization of research, and findings for policy-making and management of knowledge transfer activities.