University-Industry Collaboration in IS Research: An Investigation of Successful Collaboration Models

Abstract

The topic of university‐industry collaboration has been of particular importance to the Bled Conference for the past 25 years. Our motivation to study this topic was inspired by recent discussions on engaged scholarship and successful publication strategies in which we ob‐ served a difference in attitudes towards collaboration projects in different regions of the world. We were particularly interested in exploring drivers and barriers for engagement with industry partners from the point of view of IS academics. As a result, we embarked on a long‐term research programme on the investigation of successful modes of collaboration. In this paper, we present the findings of the first qualitative in‐depth phase, in which we inter‐ viewed nine experienced researchers in order to understand the phenomenon of university‐ industry collaboration in the context of different research backgrounds. The findings from the preliminary interviews show that researchers have very differing individual preferences regarding the ideal setup of such collaborative research projects. They also show that design research and case study are the most common research methods in such projects. While peer‐ reviewed conference papers and journal articles are the most popular forms of academic output, reports and sessions with managers are the prevalent output for industry partners. This work is a precursor to a larger survey, which will allow us to study correlations between characteristics of researcher/project type and success factors for such projects in different regions of the world.

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