Title: Predicting young researchers' university-industry collaboration using theory of planned behaviour

Authors: Ana Arzenšek; Katarina Košmrlj; Nada Trunk Širca

Addresses: Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, 6000, Koper, Slovenia ' Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, 6000, Koper, Slovenia ' International School for Social and Business Studies, Mariborska 7, 3000 Celje, Slovenia; Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, 6000 Koper, Slovenia

Abstract: The theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) was applied to explore intentions of young researchers' involvement in research projects in order to evaluate knowledge transfer within the Slovenian Young Researchers Program. With this, research gap of university intention to cooperate in joint research projects with industry was addressed. The research uses data from a national survey to test which determinants affect their intention and behaviour with respect to cooperating actively with industry and transferring their knowledge to end users. It was found that attitudes and subjective norms significantly influence the intention to engage in university-industry cooperation, explaining over 65% of variability in intention, while perceived behavioural control is not an influencing variable. Results confirm that Ajzen's theory can be applied to the case of cooperation of universities with industry; however, only two of the model's influencing factors proved effective. According to the findings of the study, the implications for the program and its university-industry cooperation are discussed.

Keywords: university-industry collaboration; UIR; theory of planned behaviour; TPB; attitude; subjective norm; perceived behavioural control; intention; learning and innovation in higher education; HEI; higher education management; multiple regression analysis; discriminant analysis; young researchers; Young Researchers Program.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2018.094071

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2018 Vol.24 No.2, pp.200 - 219

Received: 04 Sep 2017
Accepted: 14 Oct 2017
Published online: 14 Aug 2018 *

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