WHY SHOULD COMPANIES AND UNIVERSITIES CO-OPERATE IN R and D? - THE MARKETING FUNDAMENTALS

Abstract

In our rapidly changing technological environment, universities of technology have been playing a different game from roughly the second half of the 20th century. Innovation policies of the developed countries assign special importance to university-industry relations, because both the scientific and the industrial domain can profit of such co-operation. Although the marketing tools are not yet integral parts of the Hungarian universities´ management, a marketing approach to university R and D can support successful university-industry links. If we focus on the university´s knowledge product (i.e. marketable university R and D), taking the marketing point of view it can provide an insight to understand why companies and universities should co-operate and harmonise their R and D actions. Market for the university´s knowledge product is somewhat different as compared with ordinary product markets or the industrial market in general. Adopting customer orientation and using the tools provided by integrated marketing, the companies and the universities can equally harvest the fruits of co-operation. Findings of the present study are supported by empirical evidence from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, but the conclusions are relevant and useful for facilitating any change management, which is now very important in Central and Eastern Europe.