Openness in university-industry collaboration: probing managerial perceptions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of decision making of managers of intermediary organizations in university-industry (UI) collaboration by probing managerial perceptions of openness in that context. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted 11 semi-structured interviews of managers of intermediary organizations in the context of UI collaboration. Using Grounded Theory, the authors analyzed how the managers talked about openness. Findings – The authors found that the managers perceived openness in four distinct ways: first, openness as driven by management of the relationship, second, openness as driven by bringing people together, third, openness as a driver of co-creation and fourth, openness as a driver of beneficial results. From these findings the authors induce a framework for perception of openness. Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on a relatively limited data set, which is a limitation of the study. Future research should study whether differences in perception of openness exist among different contexts or partners of UI collaboration. Practical implications – The findings can potentially provide useful guidance to managers in UI collaboration as to how better understand the important concept of openness in that context. Originality/value – This study addresses the lack of research on managerial perceptions on openness in the context in UI collaboration. Probing managerial perceptions of openness provides us with better understanding of managerial decision making in UI collaboration. The study contributes to scientific discussions on managerial perceptions of openness and to discussions on managerial decision making in UI collaboration.