The Influence of Public Support on University-Industry-Government Collaboration: the Case of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania

Abstract

European, national governments and regional authorities, in recent times, are actively encouraging technology transfer from universities to industries as a fulfilment of the well embraced “third mission” of universities. To pursue this, governments have mediated this process by enacting and enforcing legislative instruments and efficiently appropriating research outcomes by providing public funding support structures to aid universities in their research commercialization efforts. The paper aims to examine various public funding schemes available for firm’s innovation collaborations and how they influence firm’s cooperation. Using data from the Eurostat’s Community Innovation Survey (2012–2014) and the binary logistic regression model, we found that funding from the central government was a significant determinant influencing firm’s collaborations with universities, other enterprises in the enterprises group and with government research centres. Conversely, funding from local authorities and the EU was largely insignificant in influencing firm’s collaborations with other enterprises and the government. Practical policy recommendations will be also provided to strengthen firm’s collaboration.

Keywords

• Public funding
• government
• university
• firms
• collaboration
• innovation