The Use of University Research Products in Entrepreneurial Practice: Specifics According To Size Class of Enterprises and Sectors of Economic Activities
The Use of University Research Products in Entrepreneurial Practice: Specifics According To Size Class of Enterprises and Sectors of Economic Activities

Summary/Abstract: The partnership between universities and businesses, the transfer of scientific products created in higher education institutions and used in entrepreneurial practice is a source of innovation in a turbulent and highly unpredictable environment. This cooperation provides indisputable benefits not only for scientific and business organisations, but also for the economy and society as a whole. This, as expected, causes significant interest among researchers, as well as national and international institutions. Despite the scientific activity and the emphasized interest, there is a need for additional knowledge regarding the scope and extent of the use of scientific products created by academia, analysed and evaluated through the prism of entrepreneurs. The aim of this paper is to identify whether enterprises’ size and sector affiliation influence the use of university research products in entrepreneurial practice, investigating the companies’ perspective. Therefore 904 companies, operating in Bulgaria, were surveyed through a structured questionnaire. The methods for analysing the empirical data combine exploratory data analysis and confirmatory data analysis, in which the tools of diagrammatic images and contingency tables were used. The results show that as the size of enterprises increases, the use of research products does too, while at the same time, entrepreneurs’ assessment of the need to establish partnerships with universities has a non-linear relation to the size of the enterprise. In addition, smaller businesses were found to be targeting university research products presented in publicly available forms while bigger ones are looking for interactive ways of knowledge transfer. Along with the size of the enterprises, it was found that their economic sector affiliation affects the intensity of cooperation with the academia highlighting as leading the sectors related to knowledge-based services, contrary to the prevailing perception that manufacturing and ITC sectors occupy leading positions.

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