Global interactions between firms and universities

Abstract

This paper investigates interactions between firms and universities in a global context. The point of departure is a review of the ever-evolving literature on innovation. Three major strands of the literature can be identified: interactions between firms and universities, transnational corporations and their global reach, and more recently, global innovation networks (GINs). These strands have intersections that provide a starting point for a theoretical framework presented in order to assist the analysis of the role of universities in innovation networks, and the ways in which emerging countries are inserted into global hierarchies. Underlying the framework is the notion that the nature of national innovation systems shapes the national role in existing innovation networks. Therefore, immature national innovation systems will be associated with immature or incomplete GINs.