Effects of firm size and geographical proximity on different models of interaction between university and firm: A case study

This paper analyzes a total of 1930 collaboration projects, including contract research, joint research, technology transfer, and incubation models, between National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and firms during the period between 2001 and 2009. Effects of both firm size and geographical proximity on the frequency of different models of collaboration are addressed. Results show that large-sized enterprises prefer adopting the contract research model and implementing it in a more comprehensive cooperation mechanism or with long-term cooperation relationships. By contrast, small and medium-sized enterprises prefer to give equal prominence to both contract research for research subject dominance and joint research due to low investment requirements. Results also show that geographical proximity is an important factor during the interaction between enterprises and NCKU. However, the influence is quite different when the cooperation models are compared individually.