Exploring the Uncharted Territories of the University-Industry Collaboration: A spectrum of knowledge transfer through formal and informal channels

Abstract

This paper attempts to demonstrate that university-industry (U-I) linkages take multifaceted forms simultaneously spanning across the whole spectrum beyond the usual understanding of industry-funded joint research and commercialization of intellectual property rights. It unveils a variety of informal knowledge-transfer channels, most of which had rarely been investigated. The analyses are on the various records regarding multiple types of U-I collaborations between Mutoh-Umemura Laboratory of the Department of Architecture of the University of Tokyo and various companies and corporate scientists during 1941–1977. The channels analyzed include "consulting," "laboratory equipment and materials granted by companies," "accepting corporate scientists into university labs for training purposes," "employment of graduate students and their continued research in corporate labs," "recruiting university professors to industry labs," "regular research meetings," and "relationship cultivation among professors, alumni, and corporate scientists."