The Impact Of Innovation On The Performance Of The Modern University

Abstract

In the current economic context, innovation is seen as a result of interactions between different actors of innovative systems. Through this work we aimed to illustrate the fact that fulfilling the third mission of the modern university, contributing to economic and social development is possible only by anchoring it in a new model that includes variables identified in the scientific literature. Anchoring the modern university in an adaptive strategy based on the orientation towards collaboration for permanent research and innovation is the key to competitiveness in the European economy. Achieving the European goals on the development of a smart, sustainable economy and favorable to the inclusion is possible through the involvement of the university in partnership founded on mutual interests and benefits in innovative systems where graduates have professional, scientific research and social skills to integrate quickly and effectively in the labor market and academics put in value their capabilities in research-developmentinnovation area.

Keywords: Adaptive university,innovation systemsthe third mission of modern universitypartnership

1.Introduction

In terms of the transition from modern to postmodern society, the university must adapt to achieve

increased efficiency and effectiveness through internal transformation of governance, management,

flexibility, organizational structure. The transition to postmodernism has also led to changing the

university's mission by adding a new feature, respectively contributing to social and economic

development of the nation.

Fulfilling the third mission of the modern university, the contribution to economic and social

development can be possible only through a complex process of transforming the organizational

environment by forming a collaborative culture with the economic environment. The effectiveness of

organizational university environment requires innovation as a strategic objective that can be met only

through the involvement of the university in partnership with the socio-economic environment within

innovative systems.

In order to identify the variables to be included in a model of success for the performance of the

third mission of modern university, we have developed an approach for identifying in specialized

literature patterns of academic entrepreneurship, concrete successful ways of university – academic

environment partnership that supports innovation, models for intra and inter-organizational knowledge

transfer, empirical studies on the empirical studies on the effect of the transfer of knowledge on academic

performance.

2.Entrepreneurial, Adaptive University - Important Player in Local Economic and Social Development

Universities are complex organizations that carry out a variety of activities with economic impact;

they act as employers, create knowledge, form human capital, make the transfer of know-how, research

for technological innovation, capital investment, have impact on regional environment and support

knowledge infrastructure ( Drucker & Goldstein, 2007).

In response to the influences of external environmental factors involving new organizational

structures, procedures and new relationships at strategic, tactical and operational level and a new way of

allocating resources, Sporn ( 2001) proposed the concept of adaptive university. “More and more aspects

of the academic enterprise are thus perceived as being significant to the regeneration and transformation

of the regions” ( Arbo & Benneworth, 2007, p. 18). Etzkowitz et al. ( 2000) points out that the financial

support of the university by the state, allocation of public funding for scientific research in universities is

influenced by the direct contribution of research to community development, stimulating regional

innovation.

The impact of the university's contribution to economic and social development can be revealed

through the process of creating shared value (CSV) by connecting university activity with the activities of

individual stakeholders. The analysis of the university processes which lead to obtain superior value for

all stakeholders was initiated by Clark (1998, 2004), continued by Rothaermel et al. ( 2007) and Gibb et

al. (2009) ho outlined the coordinates of entrepreneurial university.

Aranha & Garcia ( 2014) are the authors of a metamodel of university entrepreneurship that

highlights the impact of entrepreneurial university in modern society. In achieving this model, it was

started from studies made by Clark (1998, 2004) which emphasized the entrepreneurial pathway of

university, studies made by Etzkowiz (2001, 2004) referring to norms of the entrepreneurial university,

Kirby’s research (2006) who described the strategic actions of entrepreneurial university and the studies

made by Rothaermel et al. ( 2007) which revealed the conceptual framework of entrepreneurial university.

The innovative contributions of the proposed metamodel are:

- Entrepreneurial vision which is considered a strategic component of the entrepreneurial university;

- The process of creating shared value - CSV as a new relating framework of the university with its

stakeholders that ensure economic, social and cultural development of the region.

The structural components used as support in designing the metamodel of entrepreneurial

university proposed by Aranha & Garcia ( 2014, p. 340) are:

 Entrepreneurial vision of the university which is characterized by projecting the image and mission in an environment within a flexible internal environment with efficient structures and efficiency to

successfully fulfill the function of teaching and research and the role of an economic, social and cultural

agent;

 Committed strategic leadership, respectively the commitment in implementing the entrepreneurial vision and pursuing the efficiency and flexibility of the activities at all levels of the university;

 Generation of innovative knowledge which involves the development of programs, projects and actions to form skills, reformulating curricula and strategies for teaching and learning, generating benefits

for the region by creating new businesses, technological parks and encouraging innovative ecosystem;

 Capitalization and innovative knowledge, namely transforming the results of basic scientific research and applied research in financial, economic and social assets and their transfer to organizations;

 Economic, social and cultural development of theregion by rethinking products, services, redefining productivity in the value chain, development of clusters, innovative ecosystems, industrial parks in the

interest areas of the university, business development, technological parks, innovative ecosystems,

promote the legal and ethical framework meant to conduct the environmental behavior of people within

the university entrepreneurship;

 Integrated entrepreneurial culture by institutionalizing the tools and mechanisms that contribute to raising awareness of employees dependent on the principles of entrepreneurship, development of

programs, projects and training of entrepreneurial skills essential in the development of entrepreneurial

behavior, designing incentive strategies to develop entrepreneurial attitudes within and outside the

university.

3.University – Business Environment Partnership, Innovation Tool in Knowledge

Economy and Support Of Economic Development

3.2. Successful Concrete Ways of University – Business Environment Partnership And Innovation Support

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4.Empirical Findings

Empirical studies on the effect of the transfer of knowledge on academic performance show mixed

results:

- There is a positive relationship between performance in knowledge transfer between academia and

industry alliance ( Breschi et al, 2006).

- Theoretical studies suggest that alliances are needed to address market failures innovation,

particularly those relating to basic research (Poyago-Thetoky et.al., 2002)

- Knowledge transfer from university to industry may cause changes in long-term objectives of the

university related to research activity because it’s put in a position to solve the industry's problems in the

short term and to reduce intellectual freedom related to research agenda and scope of applying research

results ( Martin, & Etzkowitz, 2000).

- In the context of university collaboration with industry in research, applied research will be more

advanced than basic research which is considered the main axis of university research agenda (Lee,

1996), and this aspect influences the financial support of the government offered for research activity in

universities.

- There are differences of interest related to different priorities of the university and industry related to

research activity. The priority of the university is to disseminate knowledge, while industry’s one is to

obtain patent for results of research conducted in collaboration with the university (Jelenik & Markham,

2007) and to block the publication of research results on the grounds of protecting intellectual property.

- Concerning the effect of knowledge transfer from university to industry on industry performance,

empirical studies show that the transfer is mostly informal through citation patent (Hall, & Ziedonis,

2001), and the creation of spin-offs (Link, & Scott, 2005).

- The alliance success between university and industry in research is affected by decisions relating to

research and project management. A study conducted by Monjon & Waelbroeck ( 2003) in French

companies found that collaboration with universities in an alliance enhances radical innovation for the

company. These research results are offset by Sung (2005), who demonstrated that cooperation within the

alliance had no significant effect on the company's innovation in general in Korea.

- Van Wijk et al. (2008) and Martinkenaite ( 2011) conducted a critical review of the literature to

provide information related to research on intra and inter-organizational transfer of knowledge. They

concluded that integrative model of knowledge transfer between academia and industry is still unclear

and there were no quantitative studies to provide empirical evidence to explain the relationship between

related variables ( Van Wijk et al., 2008). To understand how organizations can be organized to obtain

benefits through the transfer of knowledge it is necessary to develop empirical studies that focus on

integrative model of knowledge transfer between industry and university. In fact there is not yet a

systematic overview and a mechanism of result and basic knowledge transfer.

- Industrial clustering is a source of regional advantage ( Garcia, & Sapsed, 2011) because it allows

access to important resources, developing more efficient links of value chain, an innovative climate.

Although industrial clusters have gained importance, there are still debates on what to do for them to

become sustainable and which would be the best ways to support them.

Anatan ( 2013) develops a model for knowledge transfer based on conceptual and empirical literature

review, based on two conclusions. The first conclusion is that knowledge transfer is influenced by :

a) The ambiguity level of knowledge , namely on the conditions that influence the process of

knowledge transfer (tacitness, asset specificity, complexity, experience, protectiveness partner, cultural

and organizational distance);

b) Organization size, namely the number of employees and the intellectual capital of the organization

which has the role of supporting the process of knowledge creation;

c) Organizational age which determines the limits of the organization's ability to learn and adapt to a

changing environment;

d) Organizational decentralization, namely the autonomy of each unit of organization for the

development and creation of knowledge within the business unit;

e) Absorption capacity , namely an organization's ability to identify, assimilate and apply new forms of

knowledge coming from the external environment;

f) Structural dimension (the level of high quality trust and commitment and intense communications)

relational dimension (common objectives and cultures), cognitive dimension.

The second conclusion drawn is that the relationship between the transfer of knowledge and level of

institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities is influenced by the organizational uncertainty level.

5.Conclusions

Anchoring modern university in an adaptive strategy based on the orientation towards the

collaboration between research and permanent innovation is the key to competitiveness in the European

economy. There is no universally valid model for implementing adaptive strategy by modern university.

The studies identified in the literature presents a number of variables that can be inserted into innovative

model of adaptation of modern university in the in the ever-changing requirements of economic and

social environment.

In our view, the steps along the way to increase performances of modern university through

innovative adaptation are:

-Analyzing the ability of the university to interact with key stakeholders to achieve value in the value

chain as a result of work carried out within the innovation system;

-Analyzing the ability of the university to relate in a particular industry, geographic area and a

functional perspective;

-The interconnection between the economic and industrial environment – university - government as

the basis of innovation;

-Developing partnerships between academia and industry at the strategic, tactical and operational

level, within which to exploit its complementarities and mutual advantage to generate profit;

-Creating a culture of collaboration between academia and industry as the foundation of sustainable

collaboration that highlight the skills, knowledge, experiences, viewpoints, ideas for innovation of

academics and industry. For the university there are required in this regard actions related to: allocating

resources to successfully fulfill the function of teaching and research and the role of an economic, social

and cultural agent within a flexible internal environment; implementation of entrepreneurial vision and

tracking to streamline the processes at all levels of the university; innovative ecosystem development;

transfer of results of fundamental scientific and applied research towards the business environment;

promoting individual and institutional learning concepts within joint projects with other industry

organizations to harmonize interests on scientific research.

The factors that may support an attractive and innovative partnership between universities and business

environment represent an organizational culture based on the values of entrepreneurship, a shared vision

for the use of own resources to create hared added value, the specific role of each partner correlated with

the level of expertise of the people involved.

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