University – industry collaboration in R&D: the role of labor market rigidity
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: We investigate how R&D university – industry collaboration (R&D UIC) is influenced by labor market rigidity. While it is well‐established that an educated and skilled workforce will facilitate R&D UIC, another aspect of these alliances has been under‐researched: the role of labor market rigidity, in particular the difficulties employers face in hiring and firing workers. We hypothesize that the size of the R&D labor pool in a country will encourage R&D UIC, and that the ease with which employers are legally allowed to hire and fire will directly and indirectly influence R&D UIC. Integrating data from various sources, we test our model on a sample of 73 countries for which information on the size of the R&D labor pool and labor market regulations are available. We also conduct a robustness test using a different proxy for R&D labor pool on a larger sample of 109 countries. Results confirm the strong link between a country's R&D labor pool and R&D UIC, as well as direct negative impacts of hiring and firing rigidity and an indirect negative impact of hiring rigidity. The findings have implications for managers, policy makers, and researchers of R&D collaboration between universities and industry.
Source: R and D Management
DOI: 10.1111/radm.12282
Authors: Christopher Williams, Gayle Allard
Institution: Durham University
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2599079395